My Third Blogiversary (and a raffle)

I really can't believe it is 3 years since I started this blog. How time flies.
In that time I've moved house, got engaged and met lots and lots of wonderful fellow knitters. Thank you to each and everyone of you who have read or commented on my blog.

For my 3rd Blogiversary I'm having a raffle with proceeds going to MSF
If you would like the chance to win one of the books or the skein of Colinette below then what you have to do is donate (in the spirit of P/HOP - pennies per hour of pleasure) to MSF - click on the widget below (or the one in the side bar) and then leave me a message in the comments to tell me you've donated. Entries close and I will draw the raffle 2 weeks from today at 8pm on Friday 16th January.



The books are:
Couture Knits by Jean Moss - Ravelry Link
Under Cover, 60 afghans to knit and crochet - Ravelry Link
Baby Knitting Two by Vogue Knitting
Bags & Backpacks by Vogue Knitting
Felting by Vogue Knitting
Quick Gifts by Vogue Knitting

Colinette Jitterbug in Gaugin

There is a separate story behind both of these prizes, so settle down and I'll tell all.
The Books
Way back in September I went to I Knit day in London. A few weeks later one of the members of my local knitting group emailed me to tell me she'd seen a photo of me at the I Knit day in a copy of "Knitting" magazine. I made my way to borders that lunch time and went hunting for the photo. She was right, there I was getting my book signed by the Yarn Harlot! On closer inspection I realised that the photo looked awfully familiar; I was sure it was the same photo I'd posted on my blog and Flickr. I bought the magazine so I could compare the two photos. Of course it was the same photo and at this point I got annoyed. No one from the magazine had emailed me or tried to contact me to use the photo, they had taken it without permission. Who is to say that I was happy with my photo being in print? I certainly wasn't happy that they had used the photo without my permission. I emailed the editor and politely asked where they had got the photo from and her response indicated it was from Flickr and they were sorry they overlooked the copyright.
I consulted with a few people and decided to send them an invoice for £50 for the use of the picture.... I didn't really want the money. I wanted them to take seriously the fact that they had breached copyright and to confirm that they wouldn't be doing it again.
Here is the response I got from the magazine editor:
"I must admit that I was a little disappointed to receive your invoice for the use of a picture which was clearly a mistake. It was not used as the main picture to illustrate a feature, it was, as I am sure you are aware used as more of a snap to accompany an interview. £50 would be the average cost of a hi-res picture from one of the commercial image banks such as Getty or Corbis, so I am sure you will agree there is a difference of standard here.

For this reason I will be happy to offer you £10 as a final payment plus a selection of Knitting books from our catalogue, which in total will amount to £50. I hope you will find this acceptable"

I decided to accept the offer, but re-iterated to them that it wasn't about the money, it was the issue of copyright. I hope they have learnt a lesson. To be honest, if they had emailed me to ask to use the photo I probably would have said yes, and then they could have had a high-res image rather than a "snap"!
I had been thinking about how to make something good come of all this and in the spirit of the Yarn Harlot and Natalie from the Yarn Yard and those in the Shed who have helped me decide how to respond to the editor I decided to raffle off the books with proceeds going to MSF. I have also donated the £10 they sent me to P/HOP.

The Yarn
In November Roobeedoo knitted her first pair of toe-up socks in a skein of Jitterbug that I had sent to her. Unfortunately the skein had a knot in it and the yarn after the knot was obviously not from the same "dyelot". She ended up with 1.5 socks that striped beautifully and then a messy pooling pattern on the leg of the second sock. I emailed Colinette to complain, and to my surprise they offered to send a replacement skein of yarn! Roo has decided that she doesn't want it (I can't blame her really) so I've decided to raffle this as well.... and I am praying that it doesn't have any knots!