First off, I want to warn and/or reassure everyone that there is no actual content anywhere on this site that relates to today’s subject line.

That line is however one of the many Google search topics that have landed people at this site. I’ve got several visitor statistics compilation tools attached to wiseNeedle. Some come as part of the hosting service package provided by the website ISP, some came with the dasBlog software The Resident Male used to build this new home for String. Between them they provide an interesting profile of visitors here, including some of the stranger ways they arrived. Now I can’t see from where exactly any one query originates, so please don’t worry that I know the topic above emanated from your individual computer or account. But I can see that someone on one particular day went to Google, typed in that phrase and wound up here.

Why? Because that person did a search that turned up pages that listed one or more of the words in that phrase. Knit I’ve got. Angora, too. It’s even possible that on the day in question, I mentioned work on the ribbed cuffs of an ongoing project. That’s three out of four hits on the admittedly unusual search phrase, so the seeker saw a listing for this site near the top of the probability of relevance sorted results page. (There are lots of ways to avoid this problem by targeting your searches with more precision. Google’s own tutorials are a good place to start).

Still, the search and visitor logs can be fascinating. I’ve seen a recent surge in traffic from Japan. Apparently the Kureopatora’s Snake Scarf has hit mini-fad status over there. I can even trace some referrals back to sites that show pictures of newly accomplished snakes nestled in pages full of text I haven’t a hope of reading. (Translation software helps some, but not much).

Most searches however are understandable. In the past 24 hours, I’ve seen them for

• free knit gift patterns
• spool knitter cow
• how do i make a swatch
• strickfingerhut Australia
• Montse Stanley
• Forest Path Stole
• Visio Stencils
• Solve for values of X
• Upscale beanie weenies

and some for yet another topic that appears nowhere on this site: “knit pattern g string pasties.”

My conclusion from all this – Knitters are looking for lots of information. And some of them lead far more exotic lives than mine.

On my own knitting – I’m not quite surfaced from deadline hell. I’ve had just enough spare time to tend to processing in yarn reviews and answering advice board questions. I have an inbox full of personal notes to answer, plus a couple of questions to answer that appeared here as String comments. Apologies to everyone who has waited so patiently, wondering if I’d fallen off the edge of the world. I’m still clinging on, and hope to climb back fully by the weekend.

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