Ravellenic Quest

The USOC has apologized that people are offended by what they did.

http://www.teamusa.org/News/2012/June/21/statement-from-usoc-spokesperson-patrick-sandusky.aspx

I'm planning on participating in the Wips Wrestling event. 

The description of this event is:

WIP Wrestling

Work on an existing project. You must not have worked on the project since May 15, 2012.

The project should have been started by you. If someone else started the project, you should have done a substancial amount of work on it yourself before the May 15 cut off.

The project competes only in this event

Stupidity of Olympian proportions.

Ravelry is an organization with over 2,000,000 users who enjoy knitting, crochet, spinning, quilting and other fiber arts.  Ravelry has been organizing an event called Ravelympics 2012.


They just received a cease and desist letter a short while ago.  This is just plain stupidity on the United States Olympic Committee.  For some reason they think that we as fiber artists are insulting all sports enthusiasts everywhere by honoring and supporting the Olympics.  You can see a copy of this letter and the discussion about this letter in the following thread.


http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/for-the-love-of-ravelry/2189293/1-25

 I'm posting the contents of the letter below.

Perhaps it is time for Congress to revisit the extent that the USOC can go to to protect the use of these words.

_________________________________

Dear Mr. Forbes,

In March 14, 2011, my colleague, Carol Gross, corresponded with your attorney, Craig Selmach [sic], in regard to a pin listed as the “2010 Ravelympic Badge of Glory.”  At that time, she explained that the use of RAVELYMPIC infringed upon the USOC’s intellectual property rights, and you kindly removed the pin from the website.  I was hoping to close our file on this matter, but upon further review of your website, I found more infringing content.

By way of review, the USOC is a non-profit corporation chartered by Congress to coordinate, promote and govern all international amateur athletic activities in the United States.  The USOC therefore is responsible for training, entering and underwriting U.S. Teams in the Olympic Games.  Unlike the National Olympic Committees of many other countries, the USOC does not rely on federal funding to support all of its efforts.  Therefore, in order to fulfill our responsibilities without the need for federal funding, Congress granted the USOC the exclusive right to use and control the commercial use of the word OLYMPIC a and any simulation or combination thereof in the United States, as well as the OLYMPIC SYMBOL.  See the Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, 36 U.S.C. §220501 et seq. (the “Act”).  (A copy of the relevant portion of the Act is enclosed for your convenience.)  The Act prohibits the unauthorized use of the Olympic Symbol or the mark OLYMPIC and derivations thereof for any commercial purpose or for any competition, such as the one organized through your website.  See 36 U.S.C. §220506(c).  The USOC primarily relies on legitimate sponsorship fees and licensing revenues to support U.S. Olympic athletes and finance this country’s participation in the Olympic Games.  Other companies, like Nike and Ralph Lauren, have paid substantial sums for the right to use Olympic-related marks, and through their sponsorships support the U.S. Olympic Team.  Therefore, it is important that we restrict the use of Olympic marks and protect the rights of companies who financially support Team USA.

In addition to the protections of the Act discussed above, the USOC also owns numerous trademark registration that include the mark OLYMPIC. These marks therefore are protected under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1051 et seq. Thus, Ravelry.com’s unauthorized use of the mark OLYMPIC or derivations thereof, such as RAVELYMPICS, may constitute trademark infringement, unfair competition and dilution of our famous trademarks.

The USOC would like to settle this matter on an amicable basis. However, we must request the following actions be taken.

1.  Changing the name of the event, the “Ravelympics.”;  The athletes of Team USA have usually spent the better part of their entire lives training for the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games and represent their country in a sport that means everything to them.  For many, the Olympics represent the pinnacle of their sporting career.  Over more than a century, the Olympic Games have brought athletes around the world together to compete in an event that has come to mean much more than just a competition between the world’s best athletes.  The Olympic Games represent ideals that go beyond sport to encompass culture and education, tolerance and respect, world peace and harmony.

The USOC is responsible for preserving the Olympic Movement and its ideals within the United States.  Part of that responsibility is to ensure that Olympic trademarks, imagery and terminology are protected and given the appropriate respect.  We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.

It looks as if this is the third time that the Ravelympics have been organized, each coinciding with an Olympic year (2008, 2010, and 2012).  The name Ravelympics is clearly derived from the terms “Ravelry” (the name of your website) and OLYMPICS, making RAVELYMPICS a simulation of the mark OLYMPIC tending to falsely suggest a connection to the Olympic Movement.  Thus, the use of RAVELYMPICS is prohibited by the Act.  Knowing this, we are sure that you can appreciate the need for you to re-name the event, to something like the Ravelry Games.

1.  Removal of Olympic Symbols in patterns, projects, etc.   As stated before, the USOC receives no funding from the government to support this country’s Olympic athletes.  The USOC relies upon official licensing and sponsorship fees to raise the funds necessary to fulfill its mission. Therefore, the USOC reserves use of Olympic terminology and trademarks to our official sponsors, suppliers and licensees.  The patterns and projects featuring the Olympic Symbol on Ravelry.com’s website are not licensed and therefore unauthorized.  The USOC respectfully asks that all such patterns and projects be removed from your site.

For your convenience, we have listed some of the patterns featuring Olympic trademarks.  However, this list should be viewed as illustrative rather than exhaustive.  The USOC requests that all patterns involving Olympic trademarks be removed from the website.  We further request that  you rename various patterns that may not feature Olympic trademarks in the design but improperly use Olympic in the pattern name.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/olympics-rings-af...\

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vancouver-2010-ol...

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2010-olympics-inu...

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/olympic-swimmer-d...

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2008-olympic-ring...

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/olympic-rings-nec...

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bode-miller-hat-2...

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/usa-olympic-hat

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/belgianwaffleknit/usa-oly...

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.  We would appreciate a written reply to this letter by no later than June 19, 2012.  If you would like to discuss this matter directly, please feel free to contact me at the number above, or you may reach my colleague, Carol Gross.

Kindest Regards,

Brett Hirsch

Law Clerk

Office of the General Counsel

United States Olympic Committee

1 Olympic Plaza

Colorado Springs, CO 80909

__________________________________________________

Nationwide Construction

This is a roofing company.  They repaired our roof last fall.

June 15, 2012.  The problem is not fixed.  I have contacted two other roofing companies to take a look.  The contractor has been out twice and failed to fix it.  I did notify Bryan at Nationwide that we are bringing in others to look at the problem.

The contractor was out here a couple of weeks ago because it leaked again.  I had hoped it was fixed.

May 20, 2012.  We had a really hard rain last Saturday.  The roof did not leak.  This does appear to have been fixed.

Before hiring them I researched them online.  They have been in business for a number of years and I could not find any record of complaints.  I also researched license history and there was nothing which means no disciplinary action either.

Until a few days ago I thought they had done a really good job.  We started getting water coming in the side of the house a little over a week ago whenever it rained hard.  Last Friday a carpenter/handyman came out and informed us that the problem was with the roof.

Over the week-end we had lots of water come in and major damage to the ceiling.  I called on Monday and Bryan said he would notify the contractor.  I still hadn't heard anything Tuesday afternoon so I called again.  Bryan told me the contractor would get back to me and hung up on me.  I called again about 10:30 this morning because I still hadn't hear anything.  I left a message that I expected someone out here in the next two hours.  Bryan called me back a few minutes later, said that calling him every day wasn't going to get any faster results, this wasn't a priority and they would get to it when they have time.  I told him that response is not acceptable, he hung up on me again.  I called him back and threatened further appropriate legal action.  Then I posted new entry to my blog.

I just got a call from the contractor.  He is going to come out sometime on Friday to look at our roof.  Something worked obviously.  I should not have to threaten further appropriate legal action and put a rant up on my blog to get them to do what they are supposed to.  I really hope we don't get any more major rains before they get this issue fixed.  I do expect them to fix both the leak problem and the water damage.

Edit: May 13.  The contractor came out on Friday.  I'm hoping the fix worked.

Edit:  April 9, 2013  They were out several times after that.  It didn't rain very hard after the last time they were out so we didn't have any leaks until today.  The water is just pouring in.

It was not leaking before they re-roofed the house.

Later:   And -- it looks like the roofer is only partly responsible for the water coming in.  So they aren't that bad after all.  They could have and should have been able to determine the cause.  The guy who did the temporary repair had it figured out within five minutes and confirmed it one minute later with a bucket of water poured over where the water was actually coming in from.

Warning about Nexus Mod Manager.

This utility for managing mods for Bethesda games is not safe to use.

1.  I have received clarification that no mod has the ability to deal with this issue so I'm deleting it from this post.  The second issue is still valid.

2.  If your skyrim.esm file disappears, you will get this error message

This has been set up so that the only way you can close this application is to open the task manager and force the the application to close.

Regarding the specifics of that error message, the file syntax describing where the file is supposed to be is not correct.  Both of the reasons given in that error message  for that master file disappearing are false.  There are also problems with grammar.

In addition, NMM then sometimes deletes the contents of a file in your appdata/skyrim folder called plugins.txt.  There is no easy way to undo that damage to your computer.  I did get a response from another user that reinstalling NMM fixed this for her.

Edit:  I tested this several times before discontinuing as a beta tester for this.  The issue with plugins.txt occurs, but not 100% of the time.  It still needs to be fixed.


IN CONCLUSION

Nexus Mod Manager is not safe to use.  The second issue I reported in this blog post is one that the creators of that manager introduced themselves and is an intentional design on their part rather than an actual bug.

May 10, 2012.  DarkOne posted on a thread on the official forums that this issue was addressed in the last update. He did not say how this was addressed.

May 20, 2012  Since I'm seeing that there are still complaints about the contents of plugins.txt disappearing, I have to assume that that issue has not been addressed and I am going back to my opinion that this tool is not safe to use.

Self Draping Shawl

I added some length and a ruffle to the one pictured above.  It looks much nicer than it did before in the picture below.

After I get the cast on and increases finished I will be adding the Feza Premier Alp. I am using Caron Simply Soft Paints for the first part of this shawl.  I am using size 9 needles now, the picture was with size 7 and it is just too tight a knit. 

I did start with the Feza and it just didn’t look right at the beginning. I had the Caron in my stash.

I’m working up a pattern that I plan to publish. I have made several of these, but this is the only one I currently have a picture of.

Since I’m ambidextrous, I need to make changes where one handed and ambidextrous knitting differ.

sl (ambidextrous) = put yarn behind needles, sl as if to knit, bring yarn back in front of needles

sl (one handed) = put yarn in front of needles, sl as if to purl, bring yarn back in back of needles

k = knit
p = purl
pm = place marker
m 1 = however you want, if I want a mitered look I will use kfb (knit front and back). If I want it invisible I will do a make one by using my needle to grab the post from the previous row and knitting that instead of grabbing the line between the stitches. Greengirl has an excellent video on how to do this stitch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zdl76RbncM&feature=yo...

SET UP (This is a garter tab with a 5 stitch border. For a video on how to do these see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p300ODqDWjA )
cast on 5 stitches (provisional).

Left and Right Handed instructions

Knit one row, Purl one row- 8 to 10 

Knit 8 to 10 rows. one handed (garter st.)
row 1 Knit 5, pick up 4 st. on side and 5 on other end.
row 2 . - P4, sl 1, pm, p1, pm, p1, pm, p1, pm, p1, pm, sl 1, p4

(you should have a marker on each side of the 4 stitches you picked up on the side) you should have 14 st. on the needles

PATTERN

R 1 Knit
R 2 p4, sl 1, k to last 5 st, sl 1, p 4
R 3 (Increase Row)
R 4 p 4, sl 1, p to last 5 st, sl 1, p 4

For this shawl it will be a 4 row repeat with the increases on R 3.

Increase 1 each section 1 st, 4 per row (repeat this increase row 2x in the 4 row pattern) after inc 1 = 18 st on needles (k1, m1), 2 = 22 (k1, m1, k1), 3 = 26 (k1, m1, k2) there will be 4 sts in each of 4 sections.

Increase 2 each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 80 st. after last increase (4 sections)

next row make sure there is a marker every 10 st.

now you have 8 sections

Increase 3: each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 160 st. after last increase

next row make sure there is a marker every 10 st.

now you have 16 sections

Increase 4: each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 320 st. after last increase

One Handed (Either Right or Left handed knitting.

Knit 8 to 10 rows. one handed (garter st.)
row 1 Knit 5, pick up 4 st. on side and 5 on other end.
row 2 - k4, sl 1, pm, k1, pm, k1, pm, k1, pm, k1, pm, sl1, k4 

(you should have a marker on each side of the 4 stitches you picked up on the side) you should have 14 st. on the needles

PATTERN

R 1 Knit
R 2 k4, s 1, p to last 5 st, sl 1, k 4 one handed
R 3 (Increase Row)
R 4 k 4, sl 1, k to last 4 st, sl 1, p 4 one handed

For this shawl it will be a 4 row repeat with the increases on R 3.

Increase 1 each section 1 st, 4 per row (repeat this increase row 2x in the 4 row pattern) after inc 1 = 18 st on needles (k1, m1), 2 = 22 (k1, m1, k1), 3 = 26 (k1, m1, k2) there will be 4 sts in each of 4 sections.

Increase 2 each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 80 st. after last increase (4 sections)

next row make sure there is a marker every 10 st.

now you have 8 sections

Increase 3: each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 160 st. after last increase

next row make sure there is a marker every 10 st.

now you have 16 sections

Increase 4: each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 320 st. after last increase

At this point you have enough sts. for a scarf. Unless you are using fingering weight or smaller yarn, you don’t need any other increases. Just keep adding rows until you have the length of shawl you want.

I have never stopped at this point.  This next one I am making will be a feather and fan pattern after I have finished the increases.  I will add the chart as soon as I know that it works.

@ Cathleen Bang Anderson 2012

Marengo sweater

I finished this sweater for my daughter in May. The pattern is by Berroco. I rewrote the pattern to suit my own knitting style and while I was doing it found numerous issues with the pattern that I had to edit so that the sweater would turn out.

Berroco's response when I contacted them, "We are sorry you did not understand the pattern." I expect that patterns I purchase with money to be perfect with no errors. This book has several patterns and each and every one of them has problems. I won't be purchasing any more patterns from Berroco.

Gluten Intolerance

I just confirmed that I have this by process of elimination. I have labs schedule in August and they will also do the blood work to test for Celiac Disease.