Lots of odds and ends today.

Hotlinking

Several of you mentioned that you don’t know what hotlinking is. Here’s a webpage that gives a very good explanation of it: http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/hotlinking.shtml

I no longer have problems with people hotlinking photos on the wendyknits.net domain because my service provider has a hotlinking switch in the control panel for the site. If you turn it off, when people hotlink to an image on your site, it will not display on their site. (Though, actually, I’m considering moving my photos to Flickr so you can click on them and get a larger one in a new window without using up Wendyknits bandwidth. I just need to sign up for a Flickr paid account, as I know I’d blow through the bandwidth limits on the free account very quickly.)

This is not the same as linking to a site. You can always put a link on your site to this site, or a particular page on this site. When a person clicks on that link, it takes them to the specified page on this site.

There was a question about how I know when people have downloaded my photos without permission and posted them on their sites or in a Flickr set. Mostly, it’s because I stumble across them.

How can you tell if someone is hotlinking to your site? It’ll show up in your site statistics. Look to see if your images are getting a lot more hits than your pages are.

For example, on my wendyjohnson.net domain, I just ran a report for the month of May so far. I have a page with photos of Wallace & Gromit toys. That page got 423 hits so far this month. One of the images on that page got 629 hits so far this month, so I’m pretty sure that people are hotlinking to it.

One solution is to change the name of the image on your site so that people who hotlink to the image with the old name will just get an error.

My Comments

ETA: Comments were down completely last night (and I couldn’t log into MT at all) and after I finally got through to tech support for my web host this morning, they fixed the problem — permissions had mysteriously been set to deny access?? Arrrgggh. So the comments are “working” again — in the same half-*ssed way described below. They can’t figure out what the problem is there. Sigh.

Something is definitely kaflooey with the comments here. When you leave a comment and click on “post” the page takes forever to load, and then you get a blank page or a “page not found” error. But when this happens, the comment is posted. Highly annoying, and I’m afraid I do not know why this is happening. I have an idea it has something to do with the Movable Type spam filters, but can’t find any documentation on this. If any MovableType gurus out there have any idea, I’d be most grateful if you could contact me.

On a related note, my website host offers WordPress. I have from time to time toyed with the idea of moving my blog to WordPress but I tend to break out into a cold sweat thinking about it,considering the size of my blog archives. Have any of you successfully moved a Movable Type (mine is version 3.2) blog to WordPress (I have version 2.0.2 available to me)?

New Online Magazine

Have you checked out Spindle and Wheel yet? It focuses on spinning but plans to include other fiber arts as well. The site will feature tutorials and patterns and has an online forum as well.

Yarn Pr0n! Yarn Pr0n!

Lookie here!

Last week I received an order from the new Lime & Violet Wool Pr0n shop as well as a Loopy Ewe order.

From top left, two sock yarns and some yummy roving from Lime & Violet.

Included was a subversive little note to Lucy — something about the revolution when animals take over the world. I didn’t get to look at it for more than half a second before Lucy snatched it out of my hands and hid it. Hmmmmmm.

And from The Loopy Ewe, more Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Raspberry, Stone Barn Fibers in Lamurple and Poison Ivy, and the Knittery’s wool/cashmere blend in Mist and Sea Breeze.

Yum!

And speaking of yarn pr0n:

A giftie from L-B — Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silkmo in the Lucy colorway. I’m thinking it will become a Kiri (pdf link). I plan to make it this summer so I can wear it to Stitches East in October.

Sock Progress

I’m working on the mate to each of the completed socks I showed in yesterday’s blog entry. Here’s the Grasshopper.

And here’s the Summerfield:

Incidentally, for those of you who are interested in doing a sock toe-up with the gusset slipstitch heel, check out Widdershins, from Knitty. That pattern is constructed in this manner.

Book Giveaway

Something a little different this week. I have a set of all four Flip Knit books to give away. You can read about them here.

If you would like the set of four Flip Knits books, send an email to blogcontestATcomcastDOTnet before noon Eastern time on Sunday May 20, and I will, as usual, use the random number generator to pick a recipient.

Lucy Sez

Stop blogging and play with me!

Thank you all so much for all your kind comments about my miter sweater!

(Something seems to be wonky with my server, because a whole lot of the comments showed up twice, and only a few of them were emailed to me, like they usually are. But I did read every one of them on the blog. Comcast’s spam filter has apparently been working overtime, which might account for that. Which reminds me, if you’ve emailed me and I haven’t responded, blame Comcast. They have some odd parameters on their spam filter.)

I found it amusing that so many of you mentioned that you had doubts about the sweater in progress but really liked the finished article. Why did I find it amusing? Because I had the same thoughts. I had the vision in my head of what it would look like completed, but kept having doubts about it along the way. Which is probably why it took me as long to knit as it did — some weeknights I didn’t knit on it at all, others I just did a square or two. Most of the work was done in weekend knitting marathons.

Brigitte asked if I would be putting out the pattern for it. I think the best I could do is to write up guidelines, and I may do that, if I get the energy.

But it’s really dead-simple to do — if you have a book like Knits From A Painter’s Palette to use as a reference for creating the different shapes, you can figure it out yourself.

The hardest part, I think, is choosing the colors. That’s where one can easily slip from “wearable art” to “clown sweater.” Not that I think I’m any great shakes at color theory. More likely, I just got lucky with what I chose.

But, anyway, on to my tale of two socks.

Sock the First

This is the first of the Grasshopper socks, the April offering from the Rockin’ Sock Club. I made the medium size, and used a 2.5mm needle. I made no mods, except to not do the calf shaping as the pattern stitch is muy stretchy as is. We are pleased with the results.

Sock the Second

This is the first of the Summerfield socks, the May offering from The Loopy Ewe Sock Club. I used a 2mm needle. The pattern is written top-down, but I did mine toe-up, and I used the slip stitch heel from the Grasshopper sock pattern, so it would match the look of the top-down sock.

This is a very nice heel and I do think I’ll add it to my repertoire of heels for toe-up socks.

Which heel do I like best?

Hard to say — I think the different heels I have used (short-row, gusset, slipped stitch) for toe-up socks each have their place in the Great Pantheon of Sock Heels. I can see me using each of them again.

Blog Photos

This has been said from time to time here and there on blogs, but I am mentioning it here and now because in the past few days I’ve noticed some of my photos appearing on a blog or two and in flickr sets.

If you want to use one of my photos, please ask permission before taking it off my site. 99.9% of the time I will gladly give permission. Then you can post it along with the phrase “used with permission.” I generally will not give permission to someone who wants to use one of my photos to sell something or to make fun of me. (People can make fun of me all they want, but they ought not to steal my photos in the process. I did actually stumble across one of my photos on a blog once where the blogger posted it to make fun of something I knit. And she hot-linked to the photo on my site, which is how I found it.)

To just take a photo and post it without asking is wrong. It is stealing. Is it a huge deal? No, it certainly does not affect the fate of the nation. Does it bug me? Yes. So I am mentioning it here.

There’s a notice at the bottom of the main blog page that states:

All graphics, patterns, text, and content on this site are the sole property of Wendy D. Johnson
Copyright (c) 2002-2007 Wendy D. Johnson
Not to be reproduced in any form without written permission from Wendy D. Johnson

That includes photos. An exception to this are the button graphics over in the sidebar. There is a notice there that states:

Please observe proper netiquette: You are welcome to use any of my button graphics, but please download them and host on your own server rather than linking to it on my server. Bandwidth costs money!

Another execption is the test for the “Knit From Your Stash Rules” — I stated in that blog post that anyone was welcome to take the rules and post them, or to modify them to suit themselves.

‘Nnnnnnn-kay?

(First off, thank you so much for all your wonderful birthday wishes for my dad. It quite overwhelmed him! He asked me to thank all my blog buddies — so I am doing so here!)

Would you look at that? I actually finished it!

I knit the last sleeve edging and sewed the thing together yesterday after work. It is a miter accompli!

Some specifications:

This is knitted entirely from sock yarns on 3.0mm needles. The yarns I used were:

Koigu — P514
Claudia’s Handpainted — Boot Camp
Claudia’s Handpainted — Jungle
Claudia’s Handpainted — Leopard
Claudia’s Handpainted — Eat Your Veggies
Cherry Tree Hill — Earth Potluck
All Thing Heather — Sherwood
Cabin Cove — unnamed colorway in tan and brown
Black Bunny Fibers — Tawny
Fleece Artist — Moss
Fleece Artist — Bronze
Mountain Colors — Red Tail Hawk
Twisted — Ankh
Scarlet Fleece — Sand and Sea
Lavender Sheep — Cinder
Yarntini — 4-8-15-16-23-42

I started with approximately 100 grams of each of the above yarns. I weighed some of the skeins after finishing, and found that I have an average of 65 grams per skein left.

Each 100 grams of yarn averaged 380 yards, so I started with a total of about 6000 yards of yarn. I’m guessing that the sweater took around 2000 yards. I’m putting away the leftovers for now. I’ll figure out something to do with them (like a bunch of mitered socks!) but for now I’m having a little vacation from miters.

I documented how I did the shoulder seams and neckband elsewhere on this blog. I was planning on mattress-stitching the seams, but started it and didn’t like how it looked, so started over backstitching it. That worked very well.

It was quite easy to sew together, and I didn’t need any pins, because I just matched square to square and sewed them together.

So now I put the sweater away until next autumn/winter when it will (hopefully) be cold enough to wear it.

As happy as I am to have finished this, as I was knitting the last squares on Saturday night, I was feeling nostalgic pangs. “This will be the last square in this color. And this will be the last square in this color.”

Do I like it? Yes I do!

So . . . what’s next?

I’ve got socks in progress for two different pairs at the moment. I want to knit a square or two for Laura’s Rebuilding Greensburg – Block by Block project. And I want to make some stuff for the Loopy Ewe Quarterly Challenge. After that, who knows? Maybe lace? I always like lace for summer.

And of course, more socks.

Lucy Sez

“This is a nice blanket, Momma!”

Today is my dad’s birthday. Happy birthday, Dad!

You can get some idea of how old that photo is — that’s my brother Dave and me in the picture. We look a little different now. My dad, of course, looks exactly the same today as he did then.

My dad is one of the most brilliant people I have ever known (this is, of course, a totally unbiased opinion and while I’m at it, I’ll say that it runs in the family) and has more intellectual curiosity about all sorts of stuff than anyone else I know. And I’m pretty sure I inherited my love of electronic “toys” from him.

Most importantly, he is an all-around good dad! So please leave him a Happy Birthday in my comments, okay?

(Yep, my dad reads my blog. Told ya he was a good dad!)

Blog Fodder Photo!

When I came out of the subway this morning on my way to work, I saw this parked on the street.

It’s a Chevrolet, and it had a classic car license plate that said “1950″ on it. Isn’t it cool?

Back to Knitting

Jaimie L asked:
When you knit a swatch for socks or round knitting in general do you have to knit the swatch in the round, or can you do it flat? And if your swatch is round how big around should it be?

KarenJoSeattle answered:
I’ll put in my 2 cents on the swatch in the round question. I swatch in the round for larger projects like sweaters but swatch flat for socks. My logic is socks have negative ease and are small enough that the difference isn’t worth the extra yarn.

I agree.

I generally don’t swatch for socks, unless I’m knitting with a yarn that’s quite different than the sock yarns I usually use. Then I’ll just do a small square — 20 stitches or less — just to get an idea of how the yarn is knitting up.

I didn’t bother with a swatch for my Summerfield Socks, for instance. While I’ve never used this particular sock yarn before, it looks like standard fingering weight. And it is — I’m getting 8 stitches to the inch with it.

Speaking of these socks, Mary asked how the yarn feels — if it has “give” to it. It does. While it’s not as elastic as 100% wool sock yarn, it does have enough give to make me happy. It’s a joy to knit, too. It just feels wonderful. I’m betting these are going to be comfy socks.

Warning! Shocking Content!

Just to prove to y’all that I am not totally inflexible, I put my Grasshopper sock back on two circs Saturday night and have been knitting it that way.

I told L-B that over the phone this morning and there was dead silence. Freaking out your friends who thought they knew you? Priceless.

But I still prefer dpns for socks.

Tune in tomorrow for photos of a finished miter sweater!

Lucy

Lucy and I thank you for all your lovely Lucy-versary wishes. Lucy actually gave me two Mother’s Day cards yesterday.

One of them came in the mail and bore a postmark of Richmond, Virginia, so I think she had some help with that one (cough::L-B::cough) and the other one I found on my computer chair. Her “pawmanship” on that card looks suspiciously like the KOARC‘s handwriting.

But Lucy will not ‘fess up.

There were a couple of questions about the Sea Wool socks in the comments last week.

Maggie said:
I have a skein of Sea Wool. I have almost started a pair of socks with it numerous times, but it seems to be low on the yardage so I’ve chickened out. It’s being sold as a DK weight, but I don’t agree with that…it’s so airy and when compressed I find that it gets quite fine and thin.
I was wondering if you would disclose the height of your sock cuff and length of the foot, in inches? Just to give me an idea of how far the yarn will go. I’m assuming your circumference is 64 sts.

I would never consider the Sea Wool sock yarn to be DK weight — I got 8 sts/inch with it on a size 0 needle. I made a 64-stitch sock that is 10 inches from toe to heel, and stands 9 inches tall from the bottom of the heel to the top of the cuff. I had enough yarn left over to knit a couple more inches on each sock, had I wanted to.

Marianne Y commented:
Your new socks in Marine colorway of Sea Wool are gorgeous! I love that color! Have you worn them yet? Are they comfortable? Are they machine washable?

Well, thank you. I’ve not worn them yet, so can’t comment on their comfort, but they certainly seem nice and soft. They ARE machine washable, but gentle washing is recommended.

Sock Blockers

Every time I post a photo of my completed socks on sock blockers, I get several emails asking where I got them. The two places where I have purchased sock blockers are this eBay store: Chappy’s Fiber Arts and Crafts and The Loopy Ewe.

I have put this information over in the sidebar to cut down on the email traffic.

New Sock!

As I mentioned last week, I have set aside the Grasshopper Socks to work on at home after I finish the miter sweater. So on Friday, I started another sock for the commute.

This is the first offering from The Loopy Ewe Sock Club. The yarn is a wool/bamboo/nylon blend, from All Things Heather and the colorway is called Skinny Dipping. The pattern is called Summerfield Socks, and is from Wildhorse Farm Designs. The pattern is designed to be knitted top down, but I’m knitting mine toe up.

The yarn is just awesome! Nice little sheen from the bamboo and so soft and nice. It knits up into gorgeous uniform stitches. YUM! The pattern makes a sweet little lacy trellis. I didn’t bother turning the chart upside down because it looks pretty much the same either right-side-up or up-side-down.

The Miter Report

Confession time — I think I knit about ten squares last week. I just couldn’t find my miter mojo. I had 31 squares left to knit on the last sleeve at the start of the weekend. I finished the second sleeve last night.

The sleeve has been wet-blocked and I’m waiting for it to dry. I’ll be able to finish assembling the sweater tomorrow or Tuesday.

The Book Report

The winner in this week’s book give-away is Judie. Judie, I’ve emailed you.

The Lucy Report

On May 12, 2003, my sweet Lucy came to live with me, so yesterday was our fourth Lucy-versary. May we have many more!

Happy Mother’s Day!