Opera Queen

No, I'm not talking about Franklin (this time).

One Of My Favorite CD's
Duffy's comment about Freddy Mercury made me remember one of my favorite activities when I'm mourning his way-to-early demise.

I listen to a CD of his called Barcelona.

Freddy Mercury and Montserrat Caballé join forces on one of the most amazing opera/pop artist combinations that I've ever heard. That being said, I have no understanding of opera whatsoever. I have to admit, when I first heard of this CD, I was afraid it was going to be like when Pavarotti started singing with pop stars and the pop stars' voices sounded tinny and flat next to his. It was embarrassing for both of them. But despite huge differences in singing styles between Mercury and Caballé, the voices are magical together.

Current Knitting
I made a small amount of progress on the Faux rib sweater. I'm up to about 13 inches now. Only a couple more until I start the arm hole shaping.

Other Fiber Activity
I got in quite a bit of spinning this past weekend.

First, I finished the second bobbin of singles on the white Romney.



Then I double-plied two bobbins full of what will probably be a light-worsted weight yarn.



I'm very glad I was able to spin this yarn with very little twist, because it made the finished yarn surprisingly soft for a Romney.

The scary part is that I've spun less than 10 ounces of the over 80 ounces of fiber I got. I've found the fastest and most efficient way of spinning these singles is by using a long-draw drafting technique. Regardless, this fiber will keep me busy for quite a while.

Readers' Comments/Questions
It never ceases to amaze me of the diversity of readership on this blog. Thank you for all your comments on the Age of AIDS comments I had in yesterday's blog entry. Mostly, I felt heard and understood, and that you all got the impact of what I have been feeling. I'm currently reading a book of excerpts of Thomas Jefferson's life at the moment (which I'll review when I'm finished), and how we got from his ideas of a patriotic, truly moralistic, secular government that serves the people, to the morass of shit we have today, is completely unbelievable to me.

I'll post more comments about the "Defense of Marriage" movement to amend our constitution in my next blog entry, but I wanted to pass along a link to AmericaBlog and their effort to clarify and enforce defending the sanctity of marriage. Funny and sad at the same time. Thanks Liza for passing it along.