Have you hugged your yarn today?

The night before the Olympics, and what did I find myself doing, while the rest of the Knitting World was out gathering up yarn and patterns and needles? Yup. Cutting steeks. I'm still desperately trying to finish that Dale of Norway project before cold weather season is over for the year and my poor father-in-law has to wait until NEXT year to wear this past year's Christmas present. It seems intolerably cruel to give someone a wool sweater in, say, July, doesn't it?


Then, since life wasn't confusing enough, the husbeast had Friday afternoon off and watched car races all day. Which meant I missed the opening ceremonies which was fine because I hear they were pretty darn silly lookin'. So at 2:05 of Olympics Day, this is where I was at, conceptually speaking: I hadn't even wound the yarn into balls. I have since decided I'm going to knit straight from the skein because it makes me feel like a daredevil.

I so need a life.



Last night, after a day of fiendish knitting (all on my summer tank, glorious glorious plain old stockinette stitch, forget all that complicated finishing stuff on the Dale), I started flipping through old Alice's "Celtic Collection" with the intent of actually knitting "Turoe" sometime this year. (Yes, I am certifiable. The Olympics has me all hopped up on yarn fumes.) That's when I noticed it: The gauge listings. Aberlady - 18 stitches to TWO INCHES. Rosemarkie - 31 stitches to FOUR INCHES. Lismore - 20 stitches to THREE INCHES. What in the hell? Other than being insanely fine gauge (even I, the Dale knitter, quails at anything smaller than six stitches to the inch), what's with the different measurement standards? Two, three, four inches? Confusing much? (But I still want to knit one. It's a sickness.)