German is a wonderful language. It has word constructs like "fahrvergnügen" and "schadenfreude." And I suspect it has a word which I do not know that means "I hate being right."

Earlier this evening, I started running the gathering stitches on the last tier of green tulle. And while I verified by touch that coming off the spool the Gutermann thread has some lumps, I was going slowly enough and using a large enough needle that it shouldn't have been as bad as it was. After the fourth thread snap in twelve yards, I unthreaded Lilo (the machine), turned her by hand, and listened.

*clink*

The needle's side is hitting against the bobbin race (I think that's the right term for the part). Polishing it, in fact. Which means the needle bar needs to be shifted forward, which is beyond my capability.

F*ck.

So I unplugged it, and pulled the Singer 401A up out of the desk. The 401A which I bought in case Lilo stopped working.

Yeah, that feeling of "I hate it when I'm right."

I cleaned and oiled the 401A, following the bit of its manual I'd printed out. I had no grease for the gears, but everything else got done. Including removing the lint under the feed dogs. The machine dates to 1957 and I seriously do not think the lint has been cleared out once since the day it first walked out of the store! It was packed. Solid. So me and the tweezers and the seam ripper and a long sturdy needle had a good time of it.

And now it runs. Quite smoothly, in fact.

*looks at time* Dammit, so much for plans for an early bedtime tonight.