Just gotta say how totally in love with the internets (and with you) I've been this week. So. much. fun. If you're looking for an update, I don't have one yet. But word about Whedoncraft is spreading, and even touched down in the mainstream entertainment world today. I'm hearing from some folks who may know someone who may know someone else who might be able to elbow Joss Whedon to see if he'll grant us an interview. So, you know, that's good. For now, keep spreading the word, eh? The more creatively, the better (it's more fun that way). And if you would, spread some comment and link love to people who are picking up the story.

In the meantime, check it out: Kiba started an entire Whedoncraft blog.

Also, the Austin Browncoats group is collecting handmade Jayne hats to sell for charity, and they're down with crocheted ones.

And hey, when we do set up this interview—we will; you wait—I'll definitely ask you all to submit questions, from which I'll pick a selection to ask Whedon. There's been some friendly fun-making about what kinds of crafts questions I'll ask, but we must remember a few things. First, being crafty is being crafty, whether it's with yarn or glue or glitter or clay or words and ideas. Second, we all have interests that extend beyond what we craft. Third, I have a very strong and very personal commitment to and passion for online media and distribution; don't think that won't enter into an interview with the man behind the most talked-about online entertainment project, ever. Just sayin'.

Finally, about that titular parenthetical: Tomorrow's the last day you can sign up for the way-fun-looking Olympic-themed Yarn Smackdown [via Craft]!

I'm so not letting this Whedoncraft thing go. So to add some fuel to the fire, I made myself a Jayne hat last night (crocheted, of course, which isn't so true to the knitted original but sure is true to trying to catch Joss Whedon's attention so he'll grant us an interview). I wrote up the pattern and posted it here on this very site so you can make your own Jayne hat, too. And in addition to enjoying it and geeking out over it, you can post a picture of it in the comments on my original post so you can add your voice and your craft to the hum over there.

Oh, and tell everyone you know. Especially if they know someone who knows someone who might be able to get word to Joss Whedon that we'd love a few minutes to chat about his projects and about the craft community's love for them.

Knitting Daily TV is starting to air in some locations! Your local public television station (in the U.S.) might not pick it up today, but check your listings to see if it'll start in the next few weeks. I'm so excited!

Kids, CrochetMe.com—nay, the entire online crafts community—needs your help with something that could be so much fun, I can't even find words for it. We need you to help us get Joss Whedon's attention.

Who's Joss Whedon? We know many of you already know, because you've chatted here about your love for his work, like the TV shows he created: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. And the movie Serenity. And the Astonishing X-Men comics and the Buffy comics, too.

And it's possible that this week you watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (and if you haven't yet, you should; it's free for a limited time!). And maybe you read Whedonesque, the massive and wonderful site about all the people and projects remotely related to Joss Whedon's work.

See, Joss Whedon is a wicked creative guy, and he entertains us. And last week recently, in a tongue-in-cheek response to an interview question on the Wired blog, he practically begged for a crochet publication to interview him*. And CrochetMe.com simply must be that pub. Why? A bulleted list will tell you:

• Just the thought of this makes me giggle. And as we all should know by now, absurdity is a big and special part of the internets.
• He's trying something new on the internet with Dr. Horrible, and we love trying new things on the internet, too. If we knew people like Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, we'd want to do fun things like crochet with them, too.
• Tons of crafty types are geeks who love to combine crafts with their geekiness. And tons are geeks who never thought to combine their loves. And some aren't geeks at all, but would be thoroughly entertained by an interview with Joss, too.
• Holy crap, have you seen Geek Central Station?
• There are hundreds of crocheted or knitted Jayne hats posted on Ravelry, alone.
• Speaking of Ravelry, there are over 900 members in a group on there that's devoted just to Whedon's work.
• Loads of crafters don't have any idea who Joss Whedon is and have never known his work. We can't just sit around and not seize this speck of an opportunity to try to remedy that.

Ok, enough bullets; this is a peaceful blog. We're revisiting our grassroots... roots... here, and asking the whole community to help us. If we all play together, we can have a load of fun. Here's what you can do (I lied about the bullets; at least these have numbers):

1. Post a comment below and include in it a photo or a link to something Whedon-related that you have crafted or bought from someone who made it by hand. This post can serve as evidence of the legion crafty Whedon fans.
2. Blog about this and link back here; post about this on the crafty boards you frequent.
3. Speak up. Thousands of you read this blog. Some of you must know someone who might know someone who can help us get a hold of someone who can tell Joss Whedon how much fun it would be to spend a few minutes with us, even over email.
4. Got a Whedonesque membership or know someone who does? Let them know what we're up to! Kiba posted about us!
5. Going to Comic Con later this week tomorrow? Put aside your timidity and walk right up and ask him if he'll talk or email with us. There's no shame in that. Make yourself a Jayne hat to wear just for the occasion!
6. Got ideas for what else we can do? We're all ears.

ETA three bullets (21 July):

7. Know someone who's made or bought some Whedoncraft? Phone them up or email them or Twitter them or otherwise nag them till they post about it here!
8. Got some contacts at a big blog somewhere? Or maybe you just like being an enthusiastic anonymous tipper? Let those big-blog writers know! There's enough fun in this to spread it all over the internets, from the crafts world to the tech world to the geek world, and beyond.
9. Remember: Just like crafty people wear many hats and can be found all over the internets due to their other interests both professional and recreational (how come there are so many crafters? Because we're doctors and teachers and lawyers and scientists and writers...), Whedon fans are everywhere, too! That means pretty much any place you hang out online is a good place to post about this (you know, within reason).

ETA two bullets (23 July):

10. Digg this!
11. Two words stuck together in one: YouTube.

ETA one bullet (28 July):

12. Crochet your own Jayne Hat (new pattern!) and post about it here.

I'll start with a pic of the Jayne doll I bought myself from the aforementioned Geek Central Station for my birthday a few weeks ago. (For those not in the know, Jayne was a character in the short-lived series Firefly.) Your turn!

*Here's what Joss said when asked about the buzz around Dr. Horrible: "Fact is, there's been some buzz, but it hasn't reached the places it would normally. Where's our write-up in Crocheting Monthly? (I did a very sexy shoot for that one.)"

ETA (20 July): Um, right. If you'd like to contact me directly (like, say, if you're Joss Whedon. Or his assistant. Or if you have a tip but you don't want to join CrochetMe.com just to post it here), please start with kimATcrochetme.com.

ETA (29 July): The aforementioned Kiba has started an entire blog of Whedoncraft. Do peruse at your leisure.

It's that awesome time of year again: Interweave's having its hurt book sale! Hurt or overstocked books are 50-75% off until July 18th.

Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution is among them, at 50% off. Won't you save a copy from a fate at the shredder? Puhleeze?

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!