Tour de Fleece 2010: Day 11

The frustrating thing about the project I have chosen for Tour de Fleece is that my spinning looks the same, except that the bag of fluff is rapidly emptying and turning into the more-compact-and-promising tiny bobbins of singles.

The fiber is spinning itself, but I've hit a snag along the way:

For those of you not familiar with the mechanics of a Schacht Matchless, the bearing has flipped itself backwards. My mother-of-all can't sit in there. I can't flip it myself, and this happened on Saturday afternoon, on Day 7 of the tour.

Fortunately, I'm a resourceful competitor and was fortunate enough to have a friend's (British Mary) Matchless in my living room, waiting for a new driveband so that Mom can start spinning again. I cannibalized the part I needed from British Mary's wheel, and made a note to call Schacht tout de suite.

Despite having the "ball bearing thingie" issue bridged, I found myself restless and full of project ennui. I learned a new way of tying drivebands (thanks, Mary!), and replaced Miss Kalendar's. I think this is the cleverest, least crazy-making way of tying a driveband, and will have to roadtest it a bit more before offering a visual featurette for the technique.

This weekend, we went high culture with our movie choice, and watched the most recent Hamlet, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. While I'm fond the good doctor and Sir Patrick (he was knighted, but sadly not with a bat'leth), I found Doctor Hamlet breaking the fourth wall by speaking directly to the camera *incredibly* uncomfortable, but got used to it. Also, David Tennant is adorable barefoot.

The one thing that really struck me was how *young* the character of Hamlet is supposed to be. I've read the play a zillion times, and it was just this week that I realized that Hamlet isn't an adult. He's eighteen or nineteen years old. This is a hard concept to grasp if you're used to seeing Mel Gibson's Hamlet, or Kenneth Brannaugh's Hamlet.

I don't think I've ever seen Hamlet played by an appropriately-aged actor; my first onscreen Hamlet experience was with the charming-but-lipless Kenneth Brannaugh. As it stands, David Tennant is the most youthful Hamlet I've seen so far.

I think the part would be more poignant played by a younger actor, but can't think of who I would cast. Maybe Michael Cera or Ken Baumann? (Sorry, Zac Efron, you're too old for this role.) After all, Miss Kalendar pointed out that Hamlet *was* the first emo.

Maybe Hamlet is more like Doctor Who; your first is always your favorite. (Don't worry David, you're still special to me. You're my first Doctor, after all!)