According to the February issue of CosmoGirl Magazine, February 11th is "Satisfied Staying Single Day." Gimme a break. Single or coupled, I've despised Valentine's Day since I was a miserable teenager, but I've taken great satisfaction in despising it *on* Valentine's Day. Sheesh.

Beyond broadcasting to the interweb that I read teen magazines (I use the excuse it's to research teen fashion trends for future crochet projects, but we all know I also need to know what to do if my bff makes out with my bf at my own party), I bring this up because we've decided to put out a mini-issue with a love theme. Considering my distaste for a day that's all about buying ugly cards and putting pressure on our partners to express themselves through canned words and socially prescribed gestures, I've struggled with my approach to this project. It was apparent that the Crochet me team was keen to take on this theme, and if they liked the idea I could only assume that you, dear readers, might like it too. So I considered it my role to make sure there was a certain level of irony and the potential for adaptation in the projects in this issue. I accept that many people adore ValDay, and I wish you an excellent celebration and hope you'll interpret these patterns to express your love of expressing your love. And to those like me, I hope you'll interpret these patterns to express your own take on ValDay, or save them up to use when the mood grabs you -- which might just be in July, and it might just be in black.

This mini-issue serves another purpose, too. It's to bridge the transition of our publication schedule from bi-monthly to quarterly. The next issue to come out will be our Spring issue, and it'll be published in early March. We're pretty psyched about it and we hope you are too.

We're testing a new feature out in this mini-issue. At the bottom of each pattern and article (including this here editorial) you can leave a comment. They'll show up in threads, so you can reply to a comment someone else has already written. We hope you'll use this new feature to let other readers know about what you've made with the pattern, if you have any tips or tricks, or if you want to say something that's generally relevant to the piece. The comments will remain on the page where you left them unless we think they're inappropriate.*

Cheers,

* What's inappropriate? Profanity, hate speech, flaming, whining, off-topic anything, you know the drill. Read more about our comments policy [1].