So what do you use?

Take a chunk of wood, a piece of paper, a jug of water, a bowl of flour.

Respectively in this house, to measure these items we use metric X imperial, metric, imperial and metric.

I re-trained myself to metric when Miss Dunnit went to school so that I would be able to facilitate her understanding of cooking and measuring; life, actually. The cookery and art was OK in terms of measuring and understanding. But the maths and sciences were always going to be beyond me, in metric or not.....fractions are still a total mystery! Explaining why we measure in metres and miles is beyond me too. I have no idea, really, why we've half adopted a system of measurement. I still can't really judge a mile. I can't judge a kilometre either, but now that foodstuff is sold in metric measurements, it would be easier not to have to teach two systems to future generations, wouldn't it? I have become a metric junkie when it comes to measuring paper and craft stuff, because I can see it in my head now, and oh boy, I find metric so much more accurate. I don't understand and can't 'see' an inch and seven eighths, but I sure can see 38mm or so. I'm not a fascist about it (although Slipper Lady would probably tell you different!), but because I find it easier, I do have to remind myself to work both ways at workshops for example. I regret that our measuring implements continue to show Imperial as the preferred measure; my guillotine for example, is a year old, made by a British company and has the Imperial measurements closest to the measuring edge. Makes me 'grrr' - not least because I have to find my glasses before I can read off a measurement! It's not just that lots of products are American and we therefore have no choice. It's not just our market. Mr Dunnit has a small Joinery business. He buys wood by the (wait for it) metric tonne. Huh? And they buy thousands and thousands of metres of 2" x 4" Huh? All of his machinery, CNC as well as 'old fashioned' manual stuff is calibrated in metric measurements. He and the guys who work with him switch from metric to Imperial effortlessly. Actually, we all do. We've become measurement bi-lingual. How often do you pick up a tray of mince in the supermarket and recalculate the weight to Imperial to see if it's as much or as little as you want? Is it because we're British, that we go on resisting the change? Is it because our Government didn't tell us we had to change, it was a foreign body of Europeans? So what about you - are you an expert in Impetric? Do you switch to one from the other? Does it depend what you're doing - or on the age of the person you're chatting to? Has being a crafter helped or hindered your understanding of metric measurements; like me do you prefer metric or do you loathe it? Are you scared of it? Doi you think it might be an age thing?! If you're an American reading this, I'd be fascinated to know if you measure anything in metric at all..and why.....and what's your preference?

And that big chunk of Walnut with a load of different size and shape holes in? It's a barbecue tray silly - to hold Impetric bottles of all sizes!