Best Quote I Heard All Day
Even the Mr. Darcy of Your Dreams looks like the dork in the holiday sweater. --Manolo

I swear on my mother's white head, I have never made a holiday sweater.

And the psychology of holiday sweaters escapes me. Have you ever seen a fetching holiday sweater? My very favorite purveyor of fugly intarsia sweaters, Mary Maxim, doesn't seem to have any on their web site. (However, they are carrying the Tiny Diva's Super Fabulous New York Hip Signature Collection. So much for HYUKs.)

I ask you, what's so wrong with an elegantly knit sweater for any occasion? Must we have large, insipid intarsia Santa faces or fuzzy, cuddly snowmen? And fucking sequins and beads?

Read Manolo's post about holiday sweaters. There's a lot there to make you do the Keyboard Spew.

Christmas Crap-along Inspiration
I am so pleased to be able to show you the 2003 Crap-along winner. Carol S. found the picture. She won hands-down. There was no winner for 2004 because I started the contest a little late last year.

It's a beauty. And one that I would proudly display in my powder room during the holiday season.

You may have noticed that I've set up the expanded rules on the sidebar in .pdf format. Just click on the button. But you knew that because you are a careful reader, right?

Rhinebeck 2004
Haven't touched the loom this week--other things have been pressing and I need John to help me warp, which will have to happen on a weekend, I think. I'm still spinning Starry Night that I bought in 2004. It just seems to go on forever. That might be because I bought 3 pounds of the shit.

My next spinning challenge will be to spin laceweight, for which I need the appropriate whorl and bobbins. Even though I spin fairly fine, my plyed singles generally work out to about 18 spi. I'd like to spin finer than that. I suppose I will bring my Joy wheel with me to Rhinebeck, although whether I will have time to spin is questionable.

Next entry: Rhinebeck. I'm probably going to take the laptop with me, so if I get inspired Saturday night, after dinner with Joe, Franklin, Kathy and Selma, I can flood the internet with mud-spattered photos of us slogging through the sheep dip, dragging bags of fiber and whatnot.

The weather is not supposed to be good--damp and overcast--so I'm thinking that perhaps I may wear the Estonian scarf instead. It's at least warmer and less delicate than the Field of Flowers shawl. In any event, hope to see some of you there.

And now, back to some rare and handy chores and another cup of coffee. See you at Rhinebeck!