Copyright Laws

So I had this pretty blog post ready to go to press, it was a magazine review and it had all these lovely photos and I was quite proud of it, if I do say so myself!  Then I got thinking; I was going to be using photos of a project that was contained in the magazine and I thought to myself,  that this was the designer’s work and therefore subject to copyright law, not to mention that the content of the magazine is also subject to copyright law.  So being a newbie blogger and to cover myself, I decided to do a search for magazine reviews other bloggers had done and I was happy to see that not only was the cover posted, the projects were also posted.  So I don’t know what made me search out copyright permissions on posting photographs on blogs and well, my happiness was short lived.  The bottom line is that you are not permitted to post photographs on your blog or any other website (such as Pinterest you’d be surprised to know, which I’ll talk about later) without express permission from the copyright holder.   “But it’s in the public domain” I hear you cry!  It matters not.  With the million copyright infringes that occur on a daily basis,  I thought it would have been impossible to enforce,  nope, not so, this is the blog post from author Roni  Loren, that made my happiness short lived.  To say I was shocked is the understatement of the century!  I thought, wrongly so, that any mention of designer, artist, pattern etc was a great way of exposure and free advertising,  as long as the actual pattern, book, movie etc wasn’t actually posted.  I also think that the person who sued the author above, went too far in my opinion and if I was a photographer,  designer, whatever,  I would be more than happy that my name was out there.

With regards to Pinterest the responsibility lies with me to ensure that; I have permission to use, I own or the photographs/other media is in the public domain.  I now have to decide whether to delete my account fully or to spend hours deleting pins that might infringe copyright law sigh.

So what happened to my pretty magazine review post?  I shot off an email to the magazine asking for permission to use their photos.   It took me all of 5 minutes and the post will stay in drafts until I get an answer!

Free Sweaterbabe Pattern

So I’m quite a fan of Sweaterbabe, I really like her knits,  I think the detail that she puts in, sets it apart from just your ordinary knit.  I’ve had her Flutter Sleeved Blousy Cardigan in my very long, unrealistic queue for quite some time now,  all I need is to pluck up the courage to knit it as it’s rated advanced on the Sweaterbabe website, although on Ravelry it’s given a medium hardness rating by the people who have knit it previously,  which would make me more comfortable attempting it, as by no stretch of the imagination am I an advanced knitter!  Sweaterbabe has a monthly newsletter and every month there is a free pattern contained within (there is also a paid subscription,  so make sure if you’re signing up that you’re on the right list).  This month it is the sweetest little baby hat and considering I’ve just became a Great Aunt again and a few of my friends are pregnant, I thought this was very apt and maybe helpful if you are in the middle of a baby boom, like I seem to be!

Diamond Baby Hat

You better move quick though, the free download is only available until 30/01/2014 and then the pattern is chargeable.

Mini Tip for Blocking Gloves and Mitts

One thing I adore is the magic of blocking.   I love seeing the transformation of an ugly duckling knit into a beautiful swan!  Blocking reveals the beauty of lace, evens out stitches and you can even eek out a few cms if your sleeves are too short etc.  I am a massive fan and advocate of blocking and I block absolutely everything I knit or crochet no matter what it is, what fibre it contains, how awkward it is or how many thousand pins I use!

So that brings me to today’s post, blocking gloves and mitts.  I used to pin my gloves and mitts out flat but like blocking hats flat it done the job but could have looked so much better.   So of course, true to character,  I mulled this over until I came up with a workaround.  OK, now this isn’t the invention of the century or it won’t revolutionise the knitting world and I am sure someone else has already thought of this but it is a good tip nevertheless.  Like using a plate to block berets or a balloon to block beanies there is also an ordinary household item to help you block gloves or mitts; rubber gloves!  Here’s how:

●  Prepare your knit by either soaking or steaming, whatever is applicable for your fibre
●  Use a rubber glove that fits your hands perfectly with no tightness or looseness
●  Put the rubber gloves on and wash thoroughly, otherwise your knit will smell of rubber gloves!  You can do this by just washing your hands as normal but with the rubber gloves on.  It’s up to you, whether you want to use soap or washing up liquid
●  Dry the rubber gloves, make sure at this stage that no smell has remained, re-wash if necessary
●  Put your soaked/steamed gloves or mitts on over the rubber gloves
●  Take the gloves off and blow them up to the size of your hand.  Don’t blow them up to capacity otherwise you’ll end up with the palm part too big.  Just blow them up enough that it looks natural.  Either tie them off at the bottom, twist and tape them or use clips that you get with the type of freezer bag that holds liquids, any way that you find to stop the air escaping is good.
●  Put them somewhere safe and leave to dry.

You could use water instead of the air but I would be nervous the rubber gloves would leak!  If you knit a lot of gloves/mitts, you might find it easier to make a more permanent set of blocking rubber gloves as eventually no matter what the air will escape.   You could do this by filling them with rice or sand (though they would be heavy), toy filling, old tights etc.

Hope this helps you and let me know if you have found any novel ways of blocking

Hello World

If you are reading this,  I thank you for your time.  Let me introduce myself, I am Áine, a woman from the beautiful country of Ireland.   I live in a dormer town of Dublin,  on the coast.  I am not originally from here, being born in the North of the country and moved to the ‘bright lights’ of Dublin for work, met himself,  settled down, got married and moved to the seaside.  We have a little rescue doggie called Mini aka Mini Diablo!  Mini likes to ensure that we get plenty of exercise,  not just from walks but from running around like headless chickens because she has gotten into mischief,  tried to eat something that is not a food item, her favourite being white paper tissues, which she shreds or stealing baubles from the Christmas tree! The poor girl is a tad confused, when she is being told off for said infringement she stands there, tongue lolling out and wagging her tail!  Our girl is one of a kind alright! 

 

So what have I planned for this blog, you may ask, well I’m going to leave that a bit loose. I am going to share my progress (or lack of) of my makes, in which ever craft happens to be vying for attention at that time.  I am an avid craft magazine reader so each month I plan to give my thoughts on an issue and talk about it’s content,  layout, technique sections and a pet hate of mine the amount of content versus the amount of adverts in each issue.  There will be small snippets about myself, my family and friends and about life in general. 

 

I don’t think you’ll find anything earth shattering or original in this blog.  It’s just a simple,  down to earth and occasionally ironic blog.

 

 

Lastly Happy New Year to you all and Happy Crafting  xxx