Best Quote I Heard All Day
As long as I sit in this chair, all future catastrophes will be planned by me.--George W. Bush

Now my knitting, spinning and weaving calendar for the year 2006 is finally filled up, and I'm rested and ready.

Looks like 2006 will be the year of lace, at least for knitting.

Knit Some Shit
I'm quite out of my mind. These projects are enough to make me question my stability. However, with one 2006 knitting project, the JamaicanMeCrayzee, already finished, I have my hopes for a productive year.

Major league projects:

• The Melanie Shawl

• The Wedding Ring Shawl

Minor league projects:

• Self-designed shawl in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK in the color below:
• Various pairs of socks from stash yarn

The Wedding Ring shawl, which I have just gotten from Heirloom Knitting, is an amazing pattern. Fifteen pages. And Sharon Miller includes samples of the yarn that may be used for the shawl, enough of each to knit a small swatch.

I might add that the Wedding Ring shawl is a limited edition of 500, so if you want it, you'd better get it. Sharon has already sold nearly half of them. I missed out on the Princess shawl and I was damned if I was going to miss this one. She'll reprint it in 2010. I'm not waiting until I'm 60.

I will be knitting this along with three other people. I'll let them expose themselves, as it were. This will NOT be a public knitalong. However, I'm sure three of the four of us will write about it. And it certainly will not be finished in 2006, since we don't expect to begin it before the summer.

Spin Some Shit
I have three spinning options: the Schacht, the Joy and my Comet handspindle. There's something planned for each.

The Schacht
With Starry Night almost spun up, it's time to plan for more. I have two other big bags of fiber from Tintagel Farm, bought at Rhinebeck last year (unfortunately, they have no web site, yet), so I had to pick one.

This will take the entire year to spin and ply, as did the Starry Night. I have no name for this one yet. Nothing on the bag, nothing in my head. Feel free to suggest. I have to have some tag for it when I write about it.

The Joy
Remember this bombyx silk from my shopping trip with Joe in December? That's next for the Joy. I use the Joy for small projects and sampling, primarily. So there will be other small projects for the Joy, as yet undetermined, once the bombyx is spun.

The Comet
Right now I have some generic blue wool that I'm handspindling. Once I'm done playing with that, I will switch the Cormo from the Joy onto the handspindle. There's plenty of the Cormo for laceweight, God knows.

Weave Some Shit
Since I'm such a rank beginner, I'm barely able to plan projects yet. However, I have two already in my head.

• Dishtowels in 8/2 cotton that I bought at WEBS in November

I need to get these on the warping board SOON.

• The 10/2 perle cotton color gamp huck lace sampler that I got last summer, before the loom.

I think I may do this as a baby blanket. Because you never know when you might become a grandmother again, particularly since Corinne and Mike would like to have a child together.

And I'm sure there will be more weaving projects this year.

Now, is that enough shit or what?

I grant you, I'm not as prolific as some people. But then, it's quality and learning opportunities that count, not how many schmattehs you can churn out.

And by the way, for those who did not read the Comments from the last entry all the way through, the answer to the mystery spots was: WD40. Valerie got it right first.

Now it's time to get some writing done on the book--it's coming along very well and Franklin has done some wonderful sketches. However, I'll be glad when it's over. Next book? The Joy of Sox, to be published late 2007 or early 2008. The Diamusee sock is the first design, I think.

A rare and handy weekend begins tomorrow, when Kathy and I go to see Selma the Axe Murderess up in Woodstock. I'm taking the camera. Forewarned is forearmed, girlillas.