Stephieface

Last week when I received an email from the company Craftsy touting new classes and whatnot for their company (they are a craft company where you pay money for online classes and patterns)I was shocked. The email was accompanied with a Facebook post for the same thing…. a class in which knitters learn how to customize their own yoke sweaters… and lo and behold on the sweater shown are a ring of what are very clearly squirrels made from my chart I created and posted years ago. The shock is due to the fact that a pattern for the sweater is included in the price of the class, the pattern which includes my squirrels, and the company is charging $40 a person for the class.

Now, not only do I see it on Facebook, and my email… but also on Ravelry too where the author of the pattern most likely took the squirrel chart from. I contacted the Craftsy company and was basically told ‘Well, she promised us that it was all her original content… sorry’.

So, for any crafting bloggers out there, Craftsy will allow someone else to steal your blog content, post it to their site under their name, and get money for it- even though it is your intellectual property.

What also burns my buttons about this situation is that the author works for Vogue Knitting. VOGUE FREAKING KNITTING!!!! Vogue Knitting which also sent me an email today telling me about how awesome the class and the pattern are, written by their very own writer. I have contacted them as well and have not as yet received a reply. If I have to guess it will run along the same lines as the Craftsy response which means that Vogue Knitting too will allow and reimburse theft of your blog content.

This is frustrating for me. I’m not asking for money – because really, it’s too late for that now with the pattern being offered for free since 2005 when I was over on Blogger. However, I would like proper credit for what was my work. I am the one who crouched over graph paper to divine the shape. I am the one who test knit it and then made the proper changes.

I am not denying that it is a lovely sweater. I am infuriated that both Craftsy and a writer from Vogue Knitting are unable to create their own content and instead steal it from other sources- then release it as their content for money.

Please do not expect any more free patterns to be posted on this blog, as no more will be. If you are interested in any further patterns from me, please check Ravelry, and sadly (unless it’s a Terry Pratchett pattern) you will have to pay for it.

A quick update- I’m loving my new job something fierce. I’m ecstatically happy!

So, I found a blog called  One Good Thing by Jillee. I originally found my way there via a search through google in regards to Suave Rosemary and Mint Shampoo. I bought it because Walmart was out of the brand of shampoo that I usually get, and actually preferred the scent of it. I was trying to find out if there was a whole line of Rosemary Mint stuff… and in my search I found a blog post about using the conditioner as part of a recipe for Fabric Softener written by Jillee.

As I looked around her blog, she had a lot of things on there which interested me. First was how to clean your front loader washing machine. I followed her post and my machine smelled new. So – 1 win for Jillee. So I decided to try her fabric softener recipe, using the rosemary mint conditioner and it’s awesome. So – 2 wins for Jillee. I was not about to start doubting her powers.

So then, I discovered that the Mister was secretly using my shower soap when the bottle that takes me 2 months went in 3 weeks (and when I was suddenly soap-less in the shower!)- I decided to try her body wash recipe.

I’m not a fan of Dove though. I mean, it’s alright I guess, but not so alright that I’m willing to experiment with it. Since I discovered the blog looking up rosemary and mint conditioner- I decided to stay with the more natural route and use a lavender soap. There was a lavender bar soap that I loved the smell of – but I hate bar soap- so this was what I was going to use. Lucky for me, it’s Yardley’s English Lavender soap, and I can get it at the Dollar Tree for a buck a bar (and they were pretty big bars size wise in relation to the other dollar store bars).

I wanted to make a smaller batch- in case all went to hell- so I only used 2 bars instead of 3. The directions say 3 bars and 6 cups of water (which may need more with non dove soaps) so since I bought 2 bars I started with 4 cups of water. While it was melting, I cleaned out an old lotion bottle I had that was filled with a nasty lotion I never used. While it was still melting, I smeared peanut butter all over the bottle to get the sticky sticker stuff off, and after half an hour it just wiped right off. 

It’s still “curing” (and by curing I mean cooling off) but this is what I got;

My kitchen smells awesome – I call it a success. In the end I used 5 cups of water. I see a little bit of settling (I poured it in to bottle still warm instead of waiting) so I swish it around as it cools- that way I can check if it needs more water. I can’t wait to use it!

A good bit ago I wrote a pattern for Stephieface’s Pocket Pixie. The pattern itself was made so that anyone could change it or modify it for whatever. If you look over at the pattern’s gallery on Ravelry you can see all the different little critters that people have made with it. I look through it now and again because I like seeing all the changes people make, the little outfits, the accessories like wings and mermaid tails.

So, today I was friended on Ravelry by a lovely person named lily, and I took a quick peek at my new friend’s projects… and lo and behold the first one I clicked on was made from the Pocket Pixie pattern…. lily had used it to make…. (wait for it)….

MARCELINE THE VAMPIRE QUEEN FROM ADVENTURE TIME!!!!!!

Seriously! How fabulous is this?

I am still working on embroidered quilt blocks. The pattern I have in mind for the overall quilt is pretty simple:

and in the center (represented by the hearts and stars) would be the pieces of embroidery that I’m currently working on.

The embroidery squares are usually things that mean stuff to me in some fashion. An example of blocks I’ve made:

• a deer, because the boys and I are always looking for deer on the side of the road when we’re going places.
• a mushroom, because I am allergic
• a bee, because I am allergic to these too (but both mushrooms and bees can be just so darned cute)
• a red maple leaf, because autumn is my favorite season
• a little mill that bears a remarkable resemblance to Mabry Mill
• a cherry tree covered in pink blossoms, the things I loved best whenever visiting DC
• a heart that looks like it’s been carved in to a tree trunk with the Mister’s and my initials

All of them are sort of natural looking…. woodsy… outdoorsy… which is sort of the theme. I went to my fabric box, and started chopping up scraps and such. I have usually 12 squares per piece of fabric that I use. 8 of the squares go to my quilt, and the remaining 4 I keep… to hopefully make blankets for the boys, 1 square to each (which may or may not be hopeful wishing based on how this goes).

Otherwise – things are going as they go. You know… lol… the usual.

Some time ago, before I moved to where I am now, I had a vision…. I was going to make a patchwork quilt.

At that time, it was not so big a deal… I only had 2 kids at the time and was working on cooking the third… and I only had a queen sized bed then.

I was ambitious… many of squares were going to be embroidered… I just knew it… and I started right away embroidering squares with things like names… celtic knots… and dragons…

… but I never went beyond that… the blocks that I embroidered sat around for years and I did nothing with them….

The bug has now got up my butt again, but things have changed since then. We have 4 kids…  we now have a king size bed… I initially embroidered things on a diamond shape cloth, and now I’m favoring good old fashioned square shaped… I embroidered whatever held my fancy then… and now I’m sort of sticking to a theme (a loose one, but a theme nonetheless)- so I’m sort of starting over.

See? The quilt that never ends

Recently I was contacted through Ravelry by the lovely lady over at Geek Crafts that she posted up an article about me. You can find it , here. I giggled and spurted, because I read that blog… and there she was writing about me!

… and then I read further… and saw she linked to my blog… and then I was like “Crap… I haven’t written anything for years.”

So let’s play catch up once again…..

• The husband and I went on a cruise in September – sort of like the honeymoon we never had (pictures on my facebook page)
• I’ve been playing dek hockey since March… I’m not too shabby on defense (pictures also on facebook page)
• I’ve started work on something I can only refer to as the Quilt That Will Never End (more to come on that)
• I’ve knitted many things, if you check my Ravelry projects

• I’ve made many other things as well that never made it to Ravelry (pictures also on facebook page)

That’s all I have so far… more to follow

Made another trillium flower, with some mods. I wanted it to look like an actual trillium flower, so I knit the white petals in white dishcloth worsted cotton. I added some extra rows of knit and purl to make the petals longer. I knit the green leaves as per the pattern in plain old stashed green acrylic. The anthers I made with Soy silk yarn I also had sitting around in my stash.

I wonder if I can make up a trillium headpiece for a renn faire a la A Maiden’s Glory from the Anticraft… except without all the crochet.

Fussy…. fussy… crochet.

I needed a simple flower for an embellishment…. so some scrap yarn and an hour later…. voila!

TrilliumSquaredFlowerPattern

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I return to the place I went and interviewed with on Thursday for another interview. I’ve already completed some of their required application testing, so this should be the final no-holds-barred interview that determines if I get hired or not. So send a few good vibes my way… k?

I’m really nervous, not so much about the interview, but really more about life in general. On the 24th the Mister goes in for leg surgery, so its make or break time here for Stephieface employment. I need something, and I need it now… you know? I just hope everything doesn’t fall apart and screw the rest of the year. That would really suck.

Then, my cousin is holding a Thanksmas party at the beginning of Dec, and though I really would like to go… I have no idea how things will be then. Will the Mister be kosher to travel? Will I be able to drive there and back all by my lonesome, since its his pedal hitting foot that will be out of commission? Will we be able to afford it then, since that’s when the paycheck switch up will hit?

A tender thread they say… le sigh…

When I’m feeling a little stressed, like now, I start thinking of my fantasy yarn shop. A yarn shop which I own and get to handpick all of the employees. Like the guy working the cash register would be Ian McShane.

He would use that voice of his to convince customers just how scandalously wonderful the new yarn is. Customers might even get a little squiggly when he gives them store coupons to use, like he was doing it just for them.

Then, for the Technical Service… you know, knots that can’t be undone, dropped stitches, trying to find the end of a yarn skein… I would have David Tennant…

Because anyone who have ever been a Doctor and a Time Lord would most certainly be able to fix those kinds of problems. Of course, I may have some issues with customers intentionally putting knots in yarn and losing skein ends just so they require his services… but I wouldn’t blame them.

Then there would be the guy in charge of patterns and books… MIchael Sheen, because he makes this small squirrelly part of me just squee…

I would especially squee everytime he licked his thumb to turn pages… oh… and read me passages from some of the knitting books.

Then, my stockers… dressed shirtless in kilts all day… Gerard Butler (of course!)…

And Richard Armitage…

And rolling around in the Merino would be Jensen Ackles…

Because Merino is my favorite fiber, and well… Jensen rolling around in it would make it awesome.

Then, because I believe in a full service LYS, there would be a small coffee counter and serving your espressos and Earl Grey would be Zachary Quinto…

Because, couldn’t you imagine that smile serving you coffee?

Yes… that is indeed my happy place. Wouldn’t you love to come and join me?