Not much knitting news to report lately as not much knitting has been happening at my house. I'm almost up to the neck steeks on Donegal, and I've started a pair of self-patterning socks for take-away knitting, and I've decided to frog the cashmere scarf and do something else with the year. But that's it.

I have been spinning a little, and early next week I will post a photo of the ugliest yarn to ever show up on a bobbin, so check back.

In other news... A new film version of Pride and Prejudice is in the works. Keira Knightley has been cast as Lizzie and Matthew MacFadyen will play Mr. Darcy. I think the Austen-groupie world breathed a collective sigh of relief on learning that the rumour that Brad Pitt would play Darcy was just a nasty joke. Matthew MacFadyen? At least he's British! But we know he can never replace Colin the Great.

Here they are:



He's not bad, but he's not:



Still, I'm sure I'll go see it!

I've also been wearing a pedometer for the past two weeks. I was curious to see how my activity level compares to the Amish. According to a news report, the average Amish woman logs 14,196 steps per day, compared to a range of 2,000 to 3,000 for the average American adult. The first week I wore the pedometer was the last week of school, so I was still making a 1.5-mile round trip twice a day to walk my kids to school and back. The pedometer was counting between 10,000 and 15,000 steps those days. I wasn't doing much of anything else, and most of my other walking was shorter (3 blocks to the video store, 2 blocks to a friend's house, etc.) So I couldn't figure out how 2,000 to 3,000 steps per day could possibly be an average. Wouldn't everyone get at least that much just by getting off the couch and walking to the kitchen or the bathroom a few times? Surely it must be a typo! Then I figured it out. This week, with the kids out of school, I have not been walking outside the house at all. When we have to go somewhere, it is easier for me to toss my 7-yo in the bike trailer, so I've replaced walking with biking. One day I had less than 3,000 steps on the pedometer. So now, when I consider that the average American adult uses the car in the same way I use my bike, I can see why the average is so low.

Now I've set a goal of at least 15,000 steps a day, so I'm putting the bike away and keeping the sneakers on. I'm not at all impressed with the accuracy of this pedometer, however. Last night I was not at 10,000 yet despite a lot of walking, and I tested the pedometer and found it had been counting less than half my steps. I don't think it was doing that all the time because I also tested it on a longer walk and it was only lopping off about 10%. But it was a freebie, so what can I expect? Once I get a good idea about what makes up 15,000 steps, I won't need it anymore.