Tonight I got an email that's left me doubled over laughing. I can't sleep because I keep giggling. I could send another reply to the inquirer and ask about the context, but I thought it might be a fun creative exercise to throw this open to the whole crochet community.

And so.

Rules:

• Write a 300-word (maximum) piece of fiction that ends with some form of the line "Do you have a crochet pattern for a pirate hat small enough to fit a goose?"
• Minor variations in grammar are acceptable, but the meaning must ring true.
• Leave a comment to this post with your entry.

I imagine just the thought of participating will be enticing enough, but I'll come up with some sort of prize. I'll arbitrarily close the contest, likely within a week.

Go.

Tomorrow evening—Monday, 23rd June at 9pm Eastern (that's 6pm Pacific, so I won't even be sleepy)—I'll be on Mary Beth Temple's Getting Loopy call-in podcast show. Have a listen, wontcha? And call in with questions. I've never done a live show before, and I'm psyched! We'll talk about Interweave Crochet, Knitting Daily TV, and all sorts of other crochet stuff.

Well. Will the bad blogger please stand up?

No, sit down. It's me.

Yikes.

To push through the shame and guilt, I'm taking a figurative deep breath and this is what's spilling out of my feverishly typing fingers all at once:

1. Anyone going to a World Wide Knit in Public day event, if only to crochet your heart out? I'm hoping to stop by the event at Kits Beach here in Vancouver tomorrow morning sometime. If you'll be there, leave a comment!
2. I wrote a more personal TNNA recap on my blog; do take note of that intuition advice, eh?
3. As for a more specifically crochet-oriented recap, here goes: TNNA rocked for crochet this year. Just a year ago I felt I had to explain myself and crochet to lots of vendors at the show, and this year it was taken for granted. In a good way. It was taken for granted to have crocheted samples around, and to not look at me like I had four heads when I brought up the topic. It's not too dramatic yet, but there's a slow and steady rise in interest at the professional level, and that's just excellent to see. The crochet designers I spoke with said they had a great show, which means consumers can look out for more published designs in the coming season. The overall trend in knitting toward lightweight yarns is great for us, too, because we use them lots and lots. Both Brown Sheep and Mission Falls have released new lighter-weight versions of their popular worsted weight yarns. Rock. Due to an unfortunate delay out of Chicago that involved sitting on the tarmac for two hours without air conditioning because the blistering heat outside meant the engine would overheat if the A/C was used (that's a great irony to experience, dudes), I missed half the fashion show, so I can't report on how visible crochet was. Anyone want to fill us in?
4. I'm very tempted to nick Liz's WIP-reduction scheme. Add on to her work-reward plan that my birthday's in three weeks, and it could be dangerous. But I laugh in the face of danger. Do you have stash- or WIP-reduction plans for the summer?
5. The preview of the summer IC issue came out last week. I hope you love it!

An update in three parts.

Part the First

You've perhaps noticed some inconsistency in our server upage in the last few months. I've discussed it here before. The good news is that we've put our finger on the problem; the optimistic news is that we're confident we'll be able to fix it... soon. So we've set up a Twitter account, and urge you to follow us there so we can let you know about things should the server go down. (Since Twitter is its own program, it's unaffected by our server, see, so we can still communicate with you easily. Sweet.) [Thx to Whipup for the inspiration.]

Part the Second

This is the coolest recent use of the Amigurumi Dude pattern I've seen. Rock.

Have you caught wind of the Day in the Life series Robyn has sparked over on her blog? I wrote up a weekend and weekday of my own, and loads of other crocheters have joined in. Julie just posted about more days-in-the-life to come in June, too. Makes for a really cool look into the daily life of crochet people, if you're into that sort of thing.

Part the Third

I'm going on a proper holiday tomorrow. I'm not bringing my computer or my cell phone. Also, my cell phone would be useless, as I'll be in London, England. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'll be doing things like riding a ridiculously enormous Ferris wheel in an urban setting, attending some musical theatre, drinking tea and beer, visiting good friends, buying Doc Martens for it's time they make a comeback, and relaxing in the countryside. Emma Jane will be keeping her keen eye on the site while I'm away, so do send her some hugs and yummy yarn wishes, eh?

Save the Date: Thursday, May 29, 5:30-8pm
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum Residents' Dining Hall
800 South Halsted
Chicago, IL

The book launch includes an official book-signing event and runway presentation featuring the designs from Double Stitch: Designs for the Crochet Fashionista by Erika and Monika Simmons (Interweave Press, May 2008). Don't forget to bring your copy of the book for Erika and Monika to personally autograph! (Books will also be available for sale at the event.) Desserts and refreshments will be served. Please rsvp to info-AT-doublestitchwear.com.

I had the pleasure of meeting Erika and Monika during the TV taping a few weeks ago, and they're awesome. About the sweetest uber-cool people I've ever met. I wish I could be there to celebrate their new book. You'll have to tell me all about it!

It's no secret here that I'm a sci-fi fan. As such, I occasionally read the blog of best-selling author John Scalzi. Recently, he posted a few of his favourite Amazon.com 1-star reviews of his books, and discussed that, really, he's okay with them. He challenged other authors to do the same, to possibly find entertainment in them, and ultimately to just "get past them." I obliged at the end of a rambling post on my personal blog. (Note: I'm very okay with negative reviews. I like positive reviews a lot more.)

And then this morning my life as a geek got very, very sweet indeed, for Scalzi listed me amongst some very talented and accomplished authors who also participated in his challenge.

And then Media Bistro covered it, and singled out the lone crafty girl (I suppose as a member of an even less-mainstream genre than sci-fi).

And so I just have to call upon all the crafty authors out there (scroll to the end of the post) to join in the challenge, too. Post your favourite negative reviews of your books on your blog. Let me know on my blog or let Scalzi know on his blog, for all the world should know we crafty authors can get past the negativity, too. And they should be entertained while we're at it.

Go.

Author and crochet designer Mary Beth Temple (look for a design from her in the summer Interweave Crochet) has started a new Blog Talk Radio show about crochet. Her first guest is Amy O'Neill Houck, and the show is really great. Check it out!

Looks like a new online crochet mag is in the works, to launch on 15th June (the editor is already writing a blog). I'm psyched to see so much more online crochet content in the works!

Knitting Daily TV Taping - Overview:kpwerker