African Flower tutorial theft....and Weekend Recap

Well...I guess it had to happen. I have been seeing a lot of this going on in the Blogosphere, and was wondering when I would have to be the one to write rude comments and emails ...

I received a lovely, kind email from Sam (thank you very much Sam, for letting me know :) ), asking if I had two blogs or if someone had copied my African Flower Hexagon Tutorial onto their blog. I went to take a look...Hey Presto! There is was...VERBATIM!

Now I know that there are some people out there who have dodgy ideas about what constitutes nice manners, but I have to say that I am pretty bleak about it. I know that this has happened to people's handmade items as well...someone blatantly copying their work and representing it as their own, and sadly they haven't had much by way of recourse. The only thing that I have seen happen to keep the Blog world accountable, is to bombard the offenders with messages and comments until they remove the stolen work. Have any of you had something similar happen? How did you manage to resolve the problem , if at all? What do you think I should do?
I have left a comment (very strongly worded I might add), as there doesn't seem to be an email or contact on the site, and I will try to email Blogger as well...

Folks, any helpful suggestions would be very much appreciated :)

The Tutorial is posted in it's entirety on the "makehandmade.blogspot.com" site and here is the link...



We had a lovely weekend. Gerry's stand-in doctor covered the ICU on Sunday, so we had the whole day to ourselves :) After work on Saturday, I spent (more!) time sorting out the vegetable garden. It really defies belief that the whole world as I know it can deteriorate into a uncontrollable mess in just 12 days!!!! It's kind of like "Lord of the Flies" thing! After a week of hard work, I finally feel like the worst is over and I have started planting some seedlings...


Where we live in South Africa, we have heavy summer rains, which is a bit of a challenge, as eventually everything gets attacked by Powdery Mildew. I use an excellent organic fungicide (Margaret Roberts'), and after just one application, the difference is visible.

Now is the time to plant / sow for your Autumn/Winter crops. I am planting more potatoes, beans, cauliflower, carrots, peas, red onions, baby marrows and some other odds and ends. I am going to experiment with constructing small greenhouse-like covers for my boxes to protect them from the frost (which is severe in winter), so let's see how that goes :)

Yesterday I worked on the footpaths between the bed boxes. At present, there is grass growing between the boxes, and in some places , just soil, which with the constant rain, is just a messy, muddy swamp. I found some pre-made concrete cobbles at a local nursery, which are just perfect for a walkway. I pulled out all the grass, laid down some weed control cloth and put the cobbles on top. I convinced Aliki and Gerry to go and buy some pretty white garden pebbles for me, and scattered some in the spaces that weren't well covered by the cobbles. What is really nice about these cobbles...they are all held together with wire, so you can cut a row free when you need just an extra bit. I am pretty chuffed by this...however, I have only just managed to work on a small section as yet...hopefully the rest will be done by the weekend :)

I finally have a small head of cauliflower. Really, this is a winter crop and I shouldn't have expected much by way of a harvest, but there it is!

There is a also one meagre little purple cauliflower head, more decorative than anything, but I am quite happy to be able to see the colour...it's the first purple cauliflower I have seen :)

Flashy had a bath on Sunday. Initially bath times were a nightmare with him fighting and thrashing, but he has come to really enjoy them now. Of course, the spoiled dog gets a massage and back scratching, so now he stands quite still. I wash him with a lovely organic Tea Tree Shampoo, which also makes him smell nice :)

Have a happy Monday folks!
♥Heidi

Book Review: Norwegian Handknits

Hi! Hope you all had a lovely weekend :) Today I am blogging about a knitting book that I recently ordered.
The title is "Norwegian Handknits" , written by Sue Flanders, Laurann Gilbertson and Janine Kosel. ISBN: 9780760334287, Voyager Press 2009. 144 pages with lovely colour and black and white photographs.

I have developed a love for what we loosely term "Fair Isle" knitting. Really, not all colour stranded knitting IS Fair Isle knitting, but I guess it's a term most people use when referring to the technique of stranding  two or more colours along a row of knitting, more out of ease of habit than technical accuracy. As I also have been quite taken by knitting mittens and fingerless mittens, this book satisfied both desires...

This book is beautifully bound, with a hard cover and great quality paper for the pages. The print quality is also excellent: overall I was very happy with the product.

 The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum's remarkable knitting and textile collection was the inspiration for writing the book. It is located in Decorah, Iowa in the United States, and it is here that the authors spent many years writing up patterns for the items that appear in the book.  

I enjoyed the chapter on the history of this style of knitting, and the authors included some old black and white photographs of Norwegian women spinning, knitting and shearing sheep. Makes me appreciate the online yarn shops that provide the finished product, all pretty and processed....  ; )

The patterns range in difficulty, from very easy to knit (for beginners virtually) baby's hat, adult hat and mittens, right up to "Oh! my goodness that will take me decades to complete!" multi-coloured knapsack (which would be well worth the required time portion of your life, as it is really gorgeous!)

There are aslo very nicely illustrated step by step tutorials for amongst others,making felted balls, making twisted cords and crochet picot cast-on. The authors have added touches of nostalgia throughout the book, including traditional recipes, folklore and short biographies of modern day inspirational artists that keep these artistic endeavours alive.  

There are several felted projects too, if you enjoy felting. By far my favourite pattern was that for the Entrelac sheep, seen below, with their gorgeous little fat bodies and funny little ears! From what I gather, these are not based on an original pattern at the Vesterheim Museum, but inspired by a pair of entrelac socks that do indeed live there ;)

The patterns have been charted clearly, and thank goodness for that...I don't think I would have the fortitude to knit the knapsack with only row-by-row instructions.....

I have added some pics of a few of the patterns in the book, just for inspiration...and because they are so pretty...

I haven't yet knitted any items from this book, so am not sure of any errata... and I searched the web to see if errata had been found, to no avail,so I am going with the "glass half full" crowd, declaring that all could be well on that front...

Overall, in my opinion, a WORTHY buy  :)

On another note: the pic at the top of the post was taken in the Mpumalanga lowveld area of Graskop, in South Africa. The area is beautiful, with countless stunning vistas and nature attractions, and well worth a visit!

Some interesting links: I was amazed by this, and truly astonished by the stupidity of some poor souls when I watched this, and found this eye opening.... we really live in an interesting world folks!!!

I have started my lecture block and will try to post every day...I really will try...promise...  :)

Below is our beloved dog Flash, who is extremely fond of sleeping in the sun on the carpets, but sadly is allergic to them...how could I wake him up when he looked so blissful??

That's all for today :)

Lots of Love,

Heidi :)