I started the DNA over on 3s, so after two days' work what I have completed is one repeat. But I am happy with it at last, so I guess it is a case of advanced swatching.

I have an early meeting today. I used to work in jobs that required a lot of meetings, and I have to admit that they bring out the worst in me. My idea of a meeting is this: there is an agenda, composed wholly of things that require decisions and action, which everyone sees ahead of time. The meeting begins on time, with all the necessary people present. The items on the agenda are covered, with decisions made and actions committed to for each item. Everyone leaves. In meetings of this kind I am pleasant, cooperative, and helpful.

The agenda-less meeting that I am going to today will consist of 20 minutes' waiting for people to show, 20 minutes' discussion of football schedules, 30 minutes' whining, and maybe three decisions -- two of which will be identical to those made in previous meetings and two of which (not necessarily the same two) will be rescinded at the next meeting. In meetings like this I spend the entire time concentrating on not looking as scornful as I feel.

So, can I knit in this meeting? I have enjoyed discussions of whether it is acceptable to knit in church (no), on buses (yes), and in the movies (no, for fear of dropping stitches in the dark). But what about at meetings? It may have to do with discretion. For example, if I were knitting swathes of stockinette, I could knit away while gazing intently at people as they spoke, so they would not question my level of interest in what they were saying. But on the DNA scarf, I am still having to look at the chart. Setting the chart on the table, inside my folder for the project, and sneaking looks at it -- well, someone might notice.

Here are my two DNAs, one on 5s and the other on 1s. Having ascertained that I had enough yarn to make two scarves, I had decided to complete both, and to give one to #1 daughter. However, she tells me that she would like hers to be in cream.I still feel that the 1s make an unnecessarily tense fabric; on the other hand, I also feel that following the pattern the first time you make a thing is wise. I may compromise by frogging both and making one with 3s.

I may also get back to my quilt. However, I am fairly deeply into my book, and enjoying the laziness of lying around all day reading and knitting (apart, of course, from cooking and cleaning). James has followed the tradition of making his detective quirky, but has taken it a bit further than usual, making him not merely an expat or a Southerner, but an expat, a Southerner, gay, and a vampire. Perhaps the author is himself a gay Southern expat and didn't think of those as quirks. Then, realizing that all detectives nowadays must have quirks, he thought "What the heck! I'll make him a vampire!"

It's Labor Day, a day to celebrate the working people of our nation, which nowadays is just about all of us. I plan to celebrate by not working at all. I will begin by posting a random rambling post instead of my usual thoughtful and well-crafted post. So put your white shoes on for the last time, fire up the barbie, and enjoy yourself! Except for #2 daughter, who has to go to class.

This is the week (for those of us who do the HGP) for thoroughly cleaning and sprucing up the living room, and I got the south and east walls done yesterday. Today I expect to complete the walls (and of course all the furniture and stuff along them) and then get the conversation area done tomorrow. When it comes to housework, there is always the question: is it better to do it when the guys are out or asleep, so I can do it without interruption, or to do it while they are here, in hopes of getting them to help? So I did a little of both, but their helpfulness was very limited. My husband did help me put a hook into the computer desk, so that the headphones can be hung neatly instead of flopping around all over the desk. With family portraits on the wall in the little computer area, and my aromatherapy mug rug on the tower (and the welter of papers and knitting cleaned up), I now have a very pleasant workspace here. 

We are also to put a meal in the freezer, in preparation for the busy times once the holidays come, so I made a double recipe of Baked Penne with Spinach and packaged half up for the freezer. By November, there will be a dozen meals ready. And I made some Monkey Face cookies, and froze the ones that escaped my boys. These cookies are always a little bit of a disappointment. The recipe (from Betty Crocker's 1950s cookbook) says that they develop "droll faces" while they bake. "Their droll faces will amuse you," it says. There is a teaspoonful of vinegar in them, and then you put a triangle of raisins on top, and they magically develop these droll monkey faces. Except that, in all the years I have been making them, they have yet to develop droll faces. I carefully follow the recipe every time, hoping, but it has never yet happened. Perhaps it is because they say "soft shortening" and "sour milk" and I use butter and skim milk. I don't know what they might have meant by "soft shortening" and I sure don't want to leave milk out to sour, but maybe that is the problem. In any case, they are a good spice cookie, so I make them anyway.

Extra Boy came to visit, which was nice, and chatted with us while I worked on the DNA scarf. I don't have the pattern learned yet, so I couldn't pay proper attention, so I switched back to the quilt. Later, I returned to the scarf while we watched a movie about Atilla the Hun, and got most of the first repeat finished. The movie -- on the History Channel -- made Atilla a surprisingly likeable character. They deserve a lot of points for that -- it can't have been easy.

I like the look of the scarf, and I do like the color, but the fabric feels a little tense. I think the needles are too small, really, for the yarn. I don't feel that way about the seed stitch, just about the cable section, and it may be the asymmetrical pull. I am toying with the idea -- since it is a day off -- of starting again on 5s or something to see whether I like it better. The scarf is not too big, even though my gauge is a bit larger than what is called for, so I may try it.

The DNA Along begins today, so I intend to fit a good bit of knitting in, in spite of my anxiety about finishing the anniversary quilt in time for the anniversary.

I cannot read books while I quilt, so I have been making do with magazines. The Wall Street Journal wrote recently about domestic magazines. Now that Martha Stewart Living is distancing itself from Martha and just calling itself Living, The Journal thinks its star may be on the wane. #1 daughter thought the same. The Journal sees Real Simple as a top contender for the most popular new shelter mag. I enjoy Real Simple, but the truth is that they have a gimmick. They present everything as a problem and a solution. Some of the things they choose may be actual problems, but many of them are problems only by the wildest stretch of the imagination. This make solving them very easy. Did you know that you don't have to peel apples? That you can cut your pizza with your kitchen shears? That your hand-eye coordination is at its peak in the late afternoon, making that the ideal time to do housework?  None of these issues has ever made it to my list of problems. And yet, there are the solutions, even before it seems like a problem. How reassuring! And, I think, reading through a magazine's worth of non-problems with solutions makes life seem more manageable. This may be the appeal of Real Simple.

Where I live, Southern Living is the doyenne of shelter mags. We ask each other,"Have you tried that catfish recipe in the new Southern Living?,"  safe in our assumption that everyone takes it and uses it. When #1 daughter moved up North, I thought she might switch over to whatever is the northern equivalent, but she decided to stick with Southern Living, and I think she made the right decision. Martha's Living probably comes a close second. I have always liked it because she has clever ideas for using ordinary things to make something special. Not that I believe that my pipe-cleaner stars will look like the ones made by artists and photographed by more artists, but I enjoyed making her tiny paper parasols for summer drinks, and they looked right nice, too. I also read Natural Home, but I know that it has no hope of becoming the next MS Living.

People complain that Martha's magazine is unrealistic, but one could say that about most magazines. The Wall Street Journal itself has an Alice-in-Wonderland quality to it. As the number of the poor in American rises and the gap between rich and poor widens, local and state taxes rise to make up for the federal irresponsibility and gasoline prices go through the roof, the Journal continues to run editorials explaining that Americans are only unhappy with the economy because we do not truly understand economics. They also think that having health insurance only encourages people to overspend on health care. I find these attitudes cute, except for the sad fact that the people who hold them are the ones in power.

But I digress. And since I have already done so, let me tell you about my further adventures in felting. You may recall that I have not been wildly successful with it so far.

Felting knit expert Beverly Galeskas says that to improve felting skills, one should make a lot of practice pieces, so I made myself a felted mug rug with my Brown Sheep scraps. I put in a bit of batting and a tablespoon of my Computer Companion potpourri (an aromatherapy blend from Marie Browning -- it is supposed to keep one both calm and alert). The idea is that setting a hot mug of tea or coffee on it will cause the scent to waft upward, while also preventing the ruin of the finish on your desk. I'm going to see how it works before making them for Christmas gifts.

I have learned from making this misshapen piece. I have learned that seams sewn up before felting will pull in and become rounded during felting. And that trying to sew up boiled wool with yarn and a darning needle is not practical. Also that even a little batting makes the rug mug extremely poofy -- like a pillow, not a rug -- while one tablespoon of potpourri is not enough to get any wafting going. It is a nice color, and feels very cozy, and I will enjoy it, but it is certainly a good thing that I experimented before making a lot of them. I'll use it for a while before deciding, but I think I will make the others in the round, doing all seaming after felting, and use more potpourri and no batting.

The DNA scarf knitalong begins on September 5th, so I am swatching. This is not cheating and beginning early -- I am really just swatching.

Here's the pattern: http://noodle.pds.k12.nj.us/june/HelixPattern.html .

Here's the knitalong: http://knitting.xaviermusketeer.com/index.php?cat=6

I'm using Reynold's Signature, a sport-weight wool blend. I have gone all the way down to size 1 needles, and it is already clear that I will not be able to achieve the gauge with this yarn.

"Swatching" means knitting up a piece about 4" square with the yarn, needles, and stitch pattern you plan to use for your project. You then check the gauge by measuring and counting stitches. You compare that with the gauge called for in the pattern (for the DNA scarf, 6 st to the inch in seed stitch). If it matches, then you go ahead. If it doesn't, you switch to another size needle and start over, repeating the process until you get a match. Or, if it doesn't match before it gets ridiculous, you choose another yarn or another pattern.

Many people do not swatch. I used to be a non-swatcher myself, so I know what they are thinking. They are thinking that they will be able to tell after a few inches, and can just frog it if necessary. Or adjust the pattern. They are thinking that it is not a fitted garment, so it won't matter much. Or -- my personal favorite -- it's bound to fit someone (granted, this one works better for people with large families). They are thinking that they have used this weight of yarn a lot before and they know what their gauge will be. Some of them are thinking that it will be a waste of yarn to swatch.

I frog my swatches and use the yarn in the project, so this doesn't affect me, but some people find it heart-breaking to pull out good knitting. Some gather up all their swatches and sew them together to make an ill-planned and ugly afghan that can never be washed. Some just make a pair of socks or some other little thing and consider that the swatch. I understand all these approaches.

The only really stupid take on swatching that I have ever encountered is the idea that the writer of the pattern is responsible for guessing correctly about your personal style of knitting, and thus recommending the needles and yarn which will result in the correct gauge end of the world amen. Occasionally in amazon.com reviews of knitting books you will read things like "My gauge is always spot on, and the needle sizes given in this book were just wrong." I'm sorry, but this is silly. No two knitters knit exactly alike. No two yarns knit up just alike, and sometimes two different shades of the same yarn will knit up differently. That's why you have to swatch. And why it is probably unwise to get your heart set on a particular yarn before you swatch.

Whatever your personal approach to swatching, you might like to read the swatching adventures of the DNAalong hostess. She knit multiple swatches and then washed them -- repeatedly, in varying combinations. Anyone who washes and blocks his or her swatches impresses me. She also found that she couldn't get the gauge in her chosen yarn. At this point, we are supposed to give up and use something else. However, her refusal to do that is giving me courage to refuse likewise. The scarf as designed is only 6" wide, which is a bit narrow for my tastes. And I can always do a few rows and see how it works. Alter it if necessary. And, hey, it's not a fitted garment so it won't matter much.

I have recently said some things about males and females. Reason magazine has an article on just this subject which points out that when we say "Women do this..." or "Guys do that...", what we mean is "Women do this more often than men" or "Guys do that more often than girls." The differences in reports of behavior are not that great; studies of male and female attitudes often show numbers like 71% to 62%, not 99% to 5%. Even in quantifiable studies such as brain scan research, female brains show typical male patterns about 35% of the time. So we ought not to say, "Guys throw mattresses out of their dorm windows." Rather, we should say, for example, "17% of guys throw mattresses out of their windows, while only 8% of girls do."

Getting accurate would be the hard part here. I don't know what percentage of girls climb onto the roof and lie in wait for their brothers. Or what percentage of boys do this, either.You can take this link http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=mayflwr to see Mayflower's picture of dorm hijinks, and it does not surprise me that it is a boy running down the hall with his pants falling down -- but apparently there was also a girl running topless. How would we get a good count on the proportion of guys and girls who run down the dorm hallways scantily clad? It seems like a guy thing to me, but without proper scientific calculation, who knows? (Also check out Mayflower's knitting while you are there, because it is very nice.)

Now, I can tell you that more men are knitting these days than did when I was a girl. And yet, knitting was done by men in its early days. Shepherds and sailors, we are told, kept their knitting by them. The medieval knitter's guilds were for men. Later, entire families knitted together to support themselves. As machines began to supplant hand knitters, knitting became less valuable -- and it became "women's work." Whether it is that work is less valued when women do it (just as women are cooks and men are chefs), or that women end up getting the less-valued work assigned to them, this seems to be a common pattern in history. Being a secretary was much grander when it was a man's job.

What it comes down to, though, is that trends and generalities shouldn't keep individuals from making their own choices. I won't say I would exactly encourage girls to lurk on roofs or throw mattresses out the window, but I would encourage them to be bold. And to be chefs if that is their heart's desire. And I would encourage men to knit.

I'm fooling around with felting. At this rate, my second pair of socks will not be finished until it's cool enough to wear them.

I've decided that I need more practice with felting. I still can't quite get over the feeling that it is ruining the knitting, and more suited to recycling than anything else, but with time I may change my mind. The results are very cozy, and I love the patterns in Felted Knits. I also found some very snazzy patterns for things made of scraps of wool felt, and that is where all my spoiled pieces will go, so I won't feel wasteful.

In language learning, the point at which the learner figures they know enough to manage so they won't bother to learn more is called the "sojourner" stage. This is the immigrant who can communicate well enough at work and doesn't bother to continue working on the new language, or the tourist who can order in restaurants and that seems like plenty. They get stuck right at that point, even though they may continue using the language for many years. I think we see the same phenomenon in other areas, as well.

In knitting, it is now possible to find patterns written in English rather than knitter-ese,  patterns for round things like socks and mittens made on two needles, and plenty of designs made entirely of rectangles -- so plenty of knitters avoid learning the language of knitting, or how to use double-pointed needles, or shaping. I have figured out how to use my scanner -- to do two things. And my Photoshop Elements to do one thing. So, even though the software will do lots more things, and I fully intend someday to learn how, for right now I am stuck. I'm actually pretty much like that with all the electronic stuff in my house. I learn to do the specific task I want to accomplish with the item in question, and if I ever need something more complex done, I call the kids to help.

I hope that this will be the year that I improve my skills in some of my sojourner areas. The academic year, that is -- I get two New Years.

 I have completed the first sock of pair #2. I made a broad toe to accomodate the lacy leaves, and it turns out to be very comfortable. I am pleased that I was able to keep the pattern going to the toe, so I can admire them on those hanging-around-in-socks days this winter. But don't tell my mother, who brought me up never to wear socks without shoes.

Now that it's completed, it is very obvious that my use of one different-sized needle after losing one of the original set has made a big difference -- I think even in the photograph, you can pick out the bits that were knitted with the bamboo! I don't care much, since it is a utilitarian garment, but it does leave me with a dilemma when it comes to the second sock. I started this one on a size 2.5 circular needle and then shifted to the 3-2.5s and a 2 arrangement when the circular became impractical (and I discovered that 2.5s are no longer made). So should I do the same thing in order to match more exactly, or go with just the 2s in order to be more even? Elizabeth Zimmerman (the Great) says that it will all even out with washing, but setting out to knit unevenly seems wrong, somehow.