And The Winner Is...

Congratulations to reader Janina, for her prize-winning entry in our "Name the 6-Bobbin Plying Kate" Contest!  I hereby proclaim that the device formerly known as "Mommy's Yarn-making Thingy", "The Katinator", and "What Was That Spooly-thing Again?" will henceforth and forevermore be called...

The Crazy Kate!

Thank you Janina, for your delightful play on words, and for contributing the final piece to the 6-bobbin plying Kate puzzle.  It's important that things all have their proper names, yes?

Janina will be receiving a skein of handspun yarn, made from handpainted fleece from Wales, as her prize.  I also offer a congratulatory round of applause for all of the other delightful entries I received. Thank you for joining in and playing along.

Tomorrow I depart for the Black Sheep Gathering, where all things fleecy can be learned, bought, sold and coveted.  If I don't come home with an actual sheep, it won't be my fault.  Just a BIT excited.  I will report back with all the details on Monday.  In my absence, the extremely talented and notably forthright Phillip will offer you a guest post.  I have no idea as to its subject, but I can promise that Mr. Huff's unique perspective will both entertain and enlighten.  He has the best of all possible worlds, after all:  Gets to live with a Knitter, AND Gets to appreciate her yarn collection. 

Lucky Sod.
 

The Dog Ate It

There isn't much in the world that I dislike more than excuses.  Excuses are the crutch of the weak imagination, and at best, a poor substitute for a well-crafted lie.  Of course, I do believe that if one makes a mistake, one had best fess' up, fix it if possible and move on.  Excuses, in my view, are a complete waste of energy.  After all, they don't change anything, and they rarely make anybody feel better.  That said, I am now going to offer you a whole pile of them.  

Remember when I told you, my beloved blog, that I was going to post the Sommelier pattern this week?  Remember how I raved on about its virtues, waxed poetic on its beauty, and promised you that it would be yours in practically no time at all?  Yeah, that turned out to be pretty much wrong.  The photo shoot was rescheduled, after a series of unfortunate events:

1.    My photographer was called out of town.  This lady is the absolute bomb, where picture-taking is concerned, so taking her out of the photo-shoot equation was like removing the gin from a gin and tonic: you'd have to be pretty thirsty to drink what's left over.  Nonetheless, since the models were all ready and the sweaters had been expressed back from tech editing  in Maryland in time to make it, I thought it best to press on.  I planned to take the pictures myself, and cross my fingers. 

2.  The Desert Rain sweater, which was also supposed to be photographed at the same time, decided of its own accord to take a surprise detour to Ohio for TNNA.  Okay, no problem.  We'll arrange a separate date to shoot that one.  It will be fine.  Really.

3.  It's raining.  Of course it's raining.  June in Portland = Monsoon.  It's a mathematical fact.  So what, I thought - wine cellars are indoors!  We'll use a flash.  This development will not deter us in the least.  After all, I still have beautiful sweaters (2 out of 3) and beautiful models.

4.  One of my models is sick.  To her credit, she bravely offered to push through the wall, and come along anyway.  But she didn't feel pretty.  In fact, she felt crappy.  And because she is also my friend, I just couldn't do it to her.  Plus, she might get snot on a sweater. (Just kidding, K - get well soon!)

And suddenly I realized that the universe was no longer whispering a subtle message to me.  It was bludgeoning me with a club made of DUH!  It  was time to admit defeat and abort the mission. 

I have no idea why the universe doesn't want you to have the Sommelier yet, but it clearly does not, and we are all just going to have to get used to it.  My apologies are both deep and sincere.  To all of you would-be Sommeliers, I offer this final shred of hope:  
 

I engaged the services of some stand-in models, so that I can prove that the Sommelier sweaters really do exist.  Yeah, they're cute, but as models go, let's just say These Aren't The Droids You're Looking For.

I will reschedule the photo shoot, and there will be a pattern on offer.  When, I dare not predict, the universe being as it is. 

I know I promised you a new pattern, but What can I say?  The Dog Ate It.

Screwy

This has been another of those weeks where nothing is quite working.  The children finished their school year, but Phillip didn't.  So the smallies went to Grammy's House (lucky them).  But rather than embrace our childless evenings, Phillip and I managed not to even see much of each other (he worked late doing end-of-the-year things).  I have gobs of knitting work to do, but I fell asleep before 10 PM every night this week.  I remembered my cell phone, but forgot to charge the battery.  I found my lost debit card, but there was no money in that account.  There is some cosmic balancing act afoot, and I seem to be on the receiving end.  Not that anything horrible has gone wrong, exactly, but nothing has gone extremely right, either.  Oh well, can't complain: as long as I have yarn.

Next week (not sure yet which day) I am planning to offer my very first self-published pattern for sale.  You will find it here, and on Ravelry too.  I've been working on this one since the middle of February, so I hope you will think that it's worth the wait.  It's called Sommelier, and it was inspired by all things Wine.  The buttons (funny how often it begins with a closure) have grapes on them, which inspired me to think about all the colors grapes come in, and the design unfolded from there.  It's fun to knit, really versatile, and doesn't require too much yarn.  There are two variations in the pattern, and you could easily work out others, by changing lengths, openings, and sleeves.  It's a great jumping-off place for your own ideas, or you can keep it simple and make it just as directed for a relaxing summer project. 

Next week I will also be announcing the winner of the "Name the 6-Bobbin Kate" Contest.  It's not too late to enter - just post a comment or use the contact form to send me your idea of the perfect name for the wee beastie.

And if that weren't enough to fill up next week, I'm also off to the Black Sheep Gathering, to learn spinny stuff, and stimulate the economy Mary Scott Huff-style:  Fiber Procurement, Baby, and lots of it.  I have barely any stash at all, which flatly will not do.  I'm also going to play with my friends, and hopefully make some new ones.  If you are going too, drop me a line!