In my experience, knit bloggers that are extremely funny and witty don’t last all that long. When they find they can’t be clever endlessly, they end up just not blogging anymore.

Fortunately, my readers have nothing to worry about.

Exceptions To The Rule
There are exceptions to this QueerJoe rule (#88, in case you’re cataloguing). Stephanie’s blog has remained clever for a long time, and I’m hopeful that other very well written blogs like Franklin’s, will continue to be well-written for decades to come.

I’ve never really tried to be clever in my writing. It doesn’t come naturally to me, and doing it requires a Herculean effort on my part.

I do try to be sincere and straightforward, but that’s about the best you’ll get from me.

Robin Spinning Wheel
Eagle-eyed readers that have been coming here for longer than a year might be the only people other than Thaddeus that would have noticed that the spinning wheel I took possession of, wasn’t the wheel I actually ordered.

Last year, at Rhinebeck, I ordered his most expensive wheel at the time, which was made of a wood called “spalted maple” http://www.woodworkerssource.net/Merchant3/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=WS&Category_Code=Maple_Spalted. I loved the look of the wood, and the rich color of it, but the real reason I ordered it was because it was the heaviest wheel he made, and I wanted to go for sturdy.

As I was waiting for Gil to finish his spinning lesson at Rhinebeck this year, I was describing to someone the wheel I had ordered and pointed to the “birds-eye maple” http://www.woodworking.org/WC/Woods/126.html wheel on display and said it looked something like that. To my surprise, I was pointing to my very own wheel.

In all the excitement, I just assumed I had misidentified the wood, but it turns out, Gil is no longer making wheels using spalted maple, and mine really is made of birds-eye maple. All-in-all, I was still able to get his heaviest, sturdiest wheel, and pay a couple of hundred dollars less for it.

Current Knitting
I was able to successfully finish the first sleeve of the wool/hemp sweater, and I’ll start on the second sleeve this evening.

The double pointed needles did make the work go quite a bit more quickly, and given that I carry a complete set of the Surina wood needles in the trunk of my car, I was able to quickly switch to smaller needles for the ribbed cuff.

Readers’ Comments/Questions
Regarding the picture of Franklin hanging on for dear life, June asks, “Are you speeding *and* taking photographs, Joe?”

That would be, “yes”. If it hadn’t been dark out, you’d have seen a blur outside the passenger side winder