Kat with a K

I'll stick with pen and paper, thanks.

The various fiber lists seem to be in ecstasy over the "KnitWit" automatic stitch/row counter featured on CNN.com. And, apparently, "knitting enthusiast Web loggers from all over the world, including in the U.S., France and Japan, have given her idea the thumbs up." Well, um, sorry, not this one.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love gadgets and little electronic things. I do geeky stuff for a living, more or less. And I recognize that it's a nifty idea. Fun. Cute, even.

But would I want to actually knit with it? No way. Several reasons:

1. I am skeptical as to its accuracy, especially for things like lace and cables. And what about when you put your knitting down and pick it up again? I don't know. It seems sort of like a pedometer--lots of room for error. I'm not sure I'd trust it, and then I'd be double counting all the time, and that wouldn't save much time.

2. It's built into the needles. That means you'd have to buy all new needles. And like whatever needle they happened to use. Which doesn't look like bamboo or wood. Nope, it doesn't.

3. What about DPNs? Circulars? Not sure how it would work with those.

4. Honestly? While I love gadgets in general, I'm not so big on knitting gadgets. I think it's a kind of balance--I spend all day on the computer, so when I'm knitting, I'll take real wool and wooden needles, thanks. I don't even like the clicky row counters. I find I do better marking rows off on a piece of paper.

So. Nothing against it at all, I just feel like the enthusiasm of knitters is being overestimated and I wanted to temper it a bit. Nifty, if perhaps impractical, school project idea, but certainly not the best thing since sliced bread. This is one bandwagon I don't expect to be jumping on any time soon.