Weights And Measures

(Author's note - I have no relevant pictures today so instead I'm throwing in random pictures of cats that I've fostered over years. Everyone likes random cat pictures, right?)

So I went to the feed store on Saturday because Victor needed grain. While I was there I remembered he also needed a salt block. Now a salt block isn't that big. Maybe 12 inches by 6 inches by 6 inches. And yet they were marked "Morton 50 LB Salt Block." Ha, I said to myself, that can't possibly weigh 50 pounds, I'll just hoist it up and throw it in my trunk. Now I'm not quite sure why I thought Morton's would mislabel their salt blocks and I'm not quite sure when I'll be walking fully upright again.

Polly

I'm sure most of you have heard about the tornado that literally destroyed Greensburg, Kansas. Laura, at Sugar Bunny Boulevard is organzing a drive to collect squares to make afghans, it's called "Rebuilding Greensburg - Block By Block". She's collecting 8" garter stitch squares, knit on the bias. I've never knitted anything on the bias before so I was EXCITED.

Bear

Friday night I went to Michael's and picked up some Paton's SWS in "New Geranium." Laurie had posted pictures of the yarn in that particular colorway and I fell madly in love with. Since it's self striping I thought it would be really great for my bias square. Saturday morning I got up early (9:30am!) and started knitting. An hour max, I thought, I'll have this banged out in an hour. And I should be able to get oh two, maybe three squares out of this little ball. Two hours later I was still knitting. Every five minutes I'd whip out my tape measure, confident that I was at the required 8" along one side.

Mr. Bumbly

Finally, after about, well let's not mention how long, I was at the required 8". Wee! It was downhill all the way after that. However, it was obvious there would be no two or three squares derived from this ball of yarn. I *finally* finished my square last night (that would be SUNDAY night). My lovely square is 9 1/2" by 9 1/2". What the heck?

Finn

I'm still not sure where I went wrong. I carefully measured along the side for 8". In fact I had half the stitches on one needle and half on the other when I measured just to make sure it was laying flat. And yet ... too big. Which is not surprising, considering when you measure across the bias it's umm ... 12 inches. This bias business, very confusing. Well I'll give it another shot again tonight. I refuse to be foiled by the Bias Beast.