A markup language for geeky knitters

Just as I'm wrapping up work on my controlled vocabulary for knitting (final project #2, almost done), I come across this: KnitML, the knitting markup language. As the About page puts it,

Imagine being able to do the following for any KnitML-based pattern:

• Render a pattern in either written directions or a chart, dependent on a preference setting
• Render a pattern in any language, using conventions familiar to that language and dialect
• Validate that a pattern is physically possible to knit (eliminating some types of errata)
• Automatically convert English measurements to and from metric measurements
• Size a pattern up or down to any size, not just the sizes that come with the pattern
• Recalculate a pattern for your gauge rather than the one that came with the pattern

...among other things. You can view a proof-of-concept sock pattern, all marked up in its angle-brackety glory. I'm intensely happy, both as a knitter and as a geek, that such a project exists. If I had time to sign up to beta-test Ravelry and join the KnitML group there, I would. (Right now it's on the ever-growing list of "things to do when I finish library school.")

Incidentally, I heard someone say recently that knitting had "skipped a generation," meaning that it's popular with younger people and their grandmas, but not with the generation in between. I suspect that the strong affinity of knitters and geeks, together with the expansion of the web, has a lot to do with the recent resurgence. Though I'd also like to claim geek-cred for older generations of knitters, like my own grandmother, who designed her own patterns and would no doubt be very happy to see that I finally took up knitting.