take time to save time

By making a swatch, as they always say on the Classic Elite patterns. My ass! My Mod coat is not going well. The pattern of the stitches isn't coming out at all, which is very mysterious to me. So I went down a needle size; still no luck. I'm going to go down one more size, see how that works. Normally, I'm a very loose knitter, but I was going through a kind of tight phase, I think, when I did the initial swatches for this project. And swatch I did: three of them. And I've ripped out the beginnings of this coat I-don't-know-how-many times trying to fix it. (Initially, the problem was with the many methods of M1, but now that I've settled that matter, it must be gauge.) So I'm just trying the different needle sizes on what I already have cast on, and I'll start all over once I get what I need. I do think I'll scream, though--I've never, ever had such problems with a project, and this is a big project, too. Oh, woe is me.

This is the second time this year that my swatch has been completely useless for my project--it's as if I got caught in some kind of gauge warp between one thing and the other.

I am very amused that a Chinese artists has festooned the image of Rudy Giuliani with elephant dung. I can't think of a more deserving recipient.