Thinky thoughts about bodies

So I finally got my mitts on a copy of Linda Bacon's Health at Every Size (thank you, 1firefly!) and devoured it the day it arrived.

( Lots of ideas smooshed into a few paragraphs... )

Our bodies are pretty freakin' amazing, and I'm learning to be more and more awed and grateful at how well my own has done over the years. This is all coalescing into a strong message to me: listen to your body. You know more than you think you know. Trust your instincts, but do your homework as well.

A knitting question...

So I wanna make that new vest that just came up on Knitty for my Knitting Olympics entry. It's my very first piece of Real Clothing for myself, and I'm a little nervous... it's gonna take a LOT of yarn.

So I wanna do it right. I'm swatching, even!

I've found that 10 and 10.5 needles don't get gauge, but when I use the 11s to get the width right (4" with 12 stitches), my length is screwy (instead of 4" like it's supposed to be, it's 5 1/4" at 20 rows). In fact, each time I made a gauge swatch, it was longer than wide... and it's supposed to be a square.

Am I just a messed-up knitter? What do I do here?

(If it matters... I'm using doubled Cascade 220.)