Is my ruler growing and shrinking?

Measured today again and, having not done any knitting or ripping, got something a bit under 9". ... so apparently my knitting is being done in an alternate dimension, and also being ripped in an alternate dimension.

Going on a two-day trip to Nantucket with the family tomorrow. Hopefully I can finish the sides and get started on the cable sections on the ferry/in the car/while bumming around various places... hopefully I will also get to visit at least one of the two yarn stores that Google tells me are on the island. (Hopefully I will restrain myself from making major purchases in said stores, being a poor semi-grad student who has plenty of yarn already...)

Also -- remember that scarf from waaaaay back when? The one I was knitting in, like, December? I finally started threading twine (best thing I have) up the sides so that I can block it. I have my own apartment now and my roomate has yet to show up (it's school housing, so I theoretically may not have a roomate), so I should have plenty of space to block it, too. It's kind of boring, though, so it's going relatively slowly.