In short, it appears to be related to Microsoft’s SmartScreen filter, but for more information head on over to my wiki and check out the write up of the guys research.

The site listed as the referrer is www dot submitter software dot com… they succeeded in posting 5 comments, all punting a piece of software to help drive traffic to your site by abusing shareware software sites and their PAD files… whatever they are. The software in question is actually produced by a another company, so I can only assume that submitter software is an affiliate looking to increase their earnings… maybe I should drop the software house a mail I thought… let them know about the unscrupulous tactics employed by people pushing their products… then when I looked at the products produced by this company I figured they’d probably applaud.

Of course, there could be a perfectly legitimate reason why my site was being spammed… maybe the site owner purchased advertising services from the company they make a mention of on their site and they had no clue what they would do to increase their traffic. So… Rebekah Hudson of 177 Captain HM Shreve Blvd, Shreveport, Louisiana (with the email address kphudson@comcast.net), I’d love to hear how you are involved with submitter software dot com (other than being the registrant).

So, how to stop this kind of crap if your site gets blitzed by this sorted of traffic… well, it’s actually quite simple if you can modify the .htaccess files and your server has mod_rewrite enabled. Google the search string +”block” +”referrer” +”apache” and you’ll get quite a lot of pages that provide details of how to block visitors based on referrers.

Cast on 58 stitches

* K2, P2 to end (last two stitches should be K)
* P2, K2 to end (last two stitches should be P)

This sets the pattern.  Continue for another 74 rows.

Knit 2 rows

* P2, K2 to end (last two stitches should be P)
* K2, P2 to end (last two stitches should be K)

This sets the pattern.  Continue for another 8 rows.

Cast off in pattern.

To complete, you need to sew up the sock along the starting and side edges. Then, find some cord (I knitted one with my french knitter and attached a couple of bobbles by knitting into the cord) pop the cord in place, fold the sock over on the 2 knit rows and then sew up the final edge to make the cord tube. This was knitted with Palette yarns 019/219 series yarn on 2.25mm/13 gauge needles. If you want a plainer sock, you could use something like the 018/219 series from Palette.

Here’s a piccie of my finished sock… the picture has been doctored to remove the background, but I’m sure you’ll get the idea.

The scarf is very straight forward…

Cast on 8 sts
Continue in garter stitch for 266 rows
Cast off

If memory serves, I knitted this on 4mm needles using both the red and white wool (Palette yarns 018/219 series). The tassles are simple loops tied on through the stitches. Depending on how you want your sackboy to look, you can adjust the length… as you can see from the photo, I went for the contemporary look so I made the scarf nice and long.

The hat is also fairly straight forward. This time I knitted with Palette yarns 018/219 series on 2.25mm/13 gauge needles using the following pattern:-

Cast on 94 stitches (thumb method)

* K2P2 x 23, K2
* P2k2 x 23, P2
* Sets pattern for first 6 rows

Continue in STST.  If required, change colour to seperate ribbed band.

STST for 6 rows.
  If you are adding a letter, then start it on the next
  row (should be a knit row) and work as required.
STST for a further 6 rows

Now, on each knit row, work the first and last 10 stitches like this:-

* K2 K2Tog K2 K2Tog K2

Continue until there are 10 stitches, then on the next knit row:-

* K2Tog to end

Break yarn, tie off stitches.

Make a pompom, sew up the hat and there you have it

It’s a PDF, so simply download it, print it out and get busy knitting

I’m planning on moving more content to the wiki over the next few weeks, mainly because I find it easier to manage the content than I do when it’s published with WordPress.

The wiki is located at http://athena.outer-reaches.com/wiki/ and is accessible through the ‘Wiki’ option in the menu at the top of each page.

The reason I’m asking is because it’s linked to a company called Global Crossing, and today at around 11am server time, this address and at least one other connected to Global Crossing scraped my site… absolutely every link was followed.

So… if you know anything about this IP address and they’ve visited you’re site, I’d love to know about it. And of course, if you are anything to do with Global Crossing… why in the hell have you scraped my site? Or, if you are the person who scraped it, why? I shall be googling for my own content, and if I find it reproduced anywhere without my permission, I’ll be coming down on you with the full force of the copyright laws available to me… given these IPs reside stateside, the laws are pretty dam good. You have been warned!

Update:- Well, well…. another scrape… at the moment it’s only partial, this time from 78.159.112.96 a company called netdirekt (German), and who are they partnered with… Global Crossing!

I actually only started knitting earlier this year, so at the most, 2 months ago… the reason… Sackboy. I found a knitting pattern by Alan Dart to make your own Sackboy, so after demanding my mum teach me how to knit, I got busy and knitted a Sackboy, who now lives with Spirit. But he was getting cold at night so she demanded I knit him some winter warmers.

So, I’ve knitted him a little body warmer (or gillet if you’re posh) and a little bobble hat, complete with pompom. I used 4mm needles and some Palette Collection yarn Series 019/219 (www.paletteyarn.com available from Hobbycraft in the UK, although it does look like the exact wool I used is now discountinued).

Cast on 60 stitches (thumb method)

1st Row: K2P2 to end
2nd Row: K2P2 to end
3rd Row: Repeat 1st
4th Row: Repeat 2nd

5th to 7th Rows: Knit

6th to 13th Rows: Stocking stitch beginning with knit

14th Row: (K2 K2Tog K2) Repeat to end (50 stitches)
15th Row: Purl
16th Row: Knit
17th Row: Purl
18th Row: (K2 K2Tog K1) Repeat to end (40 stitches)
19th Row: Purl
20th Row: (K1 K2Tog K1) Repeat to end (30 stitches)
21st Row: (P1 P2Tog) Repeat to end (20 stitches)
22nd Row: (K2Tog) Repeat to end (10 stitches)

Thread yarn through stiches and tie off, stitch up to make a beanie hat.

There you have it,a nice little beanie hat… pompom is optional And in a Blue Peter stylee, here’s one I made earlier…

Beanie with pompom for Sackboy

I should just add… the gillet… went slightly wrong, so I’m working on another one.