I watched the Oscars tonight. It was a terribly predictable evening. As always, the technical categories, such as sound editing, makeup, editing, et al, were poorly judged. Those "minor" awards almost always go to the big popular favorite because people cannot differentiate between a great movie they enjoyed and one with good editing, sound design, scoring, etc. It's really too bad, because many truly talented artists go unrecognized due to the academy's penchant for movies with loud explosions, hideously expensive special effects, and a big gross. I was happy that Digidesign got a Technical Achievement award for the development of its ProTools sound editing system. The importance of that program cannot be overstated. I love it, and naturally, I can't afford it.
The whole evening was pretty dull. The only interesting speech given was by Blake Edwards. Of course, since it was a lifetime achievement award, he had time to prepare. I added a few things to my list of films that I'd like to see, kept a scorecard, and knitted furiously. My picks were not as astute as they've been in the past, largely because I made sentimental choices instead of politic ones. I wanted Bill Murray to win best actor, and Keisha Castle-Hughes to win best actress, though I can think of many reasons that they didn't. I was surprised that Canada won the Foreign Language category, even though American audiences find French language films more accessible than, say, Japanese. There were several films nominated that were featured at the film festival I worked in the fall. Made me wish that I'd gone to more films then.
I've resolved not to buy any sock yarn until my stash is greatly diminished. I have enough sock yarn for a month of Sundays at present. Socks are an easier project to which to commit, I guess, and a smaller financial outlay than, say, a sweater. Still, do I want to work in small gauge forever? I don't even wear socks most of the time!
I finished the beautiful pastel socks in Schaefer yarn, a very luxurious blend of fibers but very fine. Eleven stitches to the inch fine. So when I started working on a pair of socks for my grandfather's upcoming birthday at seven stitches to the inch, it felt luxuriously large gauged. It's all relative. The birthday socks came as a bit of a revelation. I'm making them from Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, with which I have never worked. What a pleasant surprise! I knew that their yarns were beautiful, but they also have a magnificent hand. Supersock feels a lot like Koigu sock yarn, which is an expensive, rare beast in this area. I even have another skein of Supersock in my stash!
I'm working on my raglan colorblock sweater in fits and starts. I don't want to make it with a v neck after all, so I have to chart out a crewneck instead. Knitting is just one big story problem, minus trains in different cities leaving stations.... It isn't terribly difficult to make the necessary alterations, just tedious. Since I cannot start on the sleeves until I've finished the body, I'm stalled on this project.