odd occurrences

There have been some odd occurrences around here as of late. Alex's meds seem to be interfering with his sleep and he's waking up in the middle of the night and staying up for the rest of the night, all while climbing out of his crib to grab something to keep himself entertained instead of just closing his eyes like he's supposed to. Even spanking him (because really, it's dangerous to climb out of the crib like that) doesn't have any affect and he just does it again half an hour later. I'm not getting much sleep around here. The nurse said that his prednisone can have that type of side affect, and there's nothing we can really do about it. Even the children's Benadryl (for his nose) isn't enough to counteract it.

My little blog has suddenly found itself the target of spam commenting. It doesn't happen very often and no one has seen it because I have to approve all comments before they hit. I generally allow all comments to be posted (all real comments), even if they're critical or unflattering because everyone has a right to their opinions and I'm not about sensorship here, as long as everyone plays nice. Anyway, I've found adds for things that turned out to be porn0graphic in nature (spelled incorrectly with intent, to avoid being pulled up on any google searches), and some that were a link to an Asian site (or I assume so because the type was all Asian characters). I just found it a bit strange that my little blog has hit the radar of spammers. I thought that only big blogs that people actually read got things like that, lol. Maybe there are more visitors that I realize...

Another strange thing...? I logged onto Ravelry today to find a message from someone that another designer has put up a pattern for sale that is scary-close to my Bella's New Moon Vest. I took a look at it, and there isn't much that separates that vest from mine. The colorwork is awfully close, and most of the motifs are the same, or only very slightly changed. Her pattern is an actual pattern with directions for knitting different sizes, and her blog shows that her vest was knitted, finished, and blocked by Jan 7th...which doesn't seem like it would be enough time for her to have used my chart and notes because I put mine up on Jan 1st. At least that's what I'm going to say to myself because I don't want to think that someone took my work, wrote it out into a pattern, did not credit me at all, and is going to make a profit from it. It seems more like she was inspired by the same film, and the same vest, which really is the more likely scenario. Everyone was going crazy over Kristen Stewart's vest from New Moon so the chances that I was the only person to do something about it are slim. But still, it doesn't stop this news from taking some of the shine off of my accomplishment, and it sort of eliminates the point of my next idea for that chart...I had plans to write a formal pattern. That was the driving force behind my newest purchase from Knit Picks (my yarn for the vest, and three reference books). I guess I'll just have to knit the vest for myself, and decide after that because this latest pattern (called eighteen) doesn't have that elusive center panel from Kristen's vest (you know...the one that we can't get a good clear picture of), and mine does.

On the subject of fair isle vests... my ivy league has a large hole in the shoulder. This would be due to my ignorance of pretty much all things fair isle. I was flipping through my new book from Alice Starmore (which is amazing, by the way) and I saw that I was supposed to sew the edges of the steek. Nobody told me that! I assumed that the sticky yarn that held all the strands in place when I cut into them, would just go on holding things in place while I wore the vest. Now I have to figure out a way to repair it, but not before I can really read through the book to make sure I'm doing it right.

One last odd thing (but odd in a good way). I finished both of my projects yesterday with about six hours to spare! I worked really hard, studying most nights until 11pm to try to finish them and if you had asked me on Sunday, I would have told you that there was no way I could finish them...maybe I might have pulled off one. But I made it, and I think that they're good and I hope that I get a good grade on these because I really busted my hump on them both. To celebrate, I'm going to go eat breakfast and start this weeks reading.