DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am a young woman in my early 20s, and I have recently taken up knitting in an effort to broaden the scope of my hobbies. I thoroughly enjoy it, and it provides endless entertainment for me.

I started off knitting at home, and once I became more confident in my abilities, I began taking my knitting outside with me. It has proved to be useful in staving off boredom while waiting for the bus or at the doctor's office, among other places.

Unfortunately, since I have been taking my knitting with me, I find myself frequently asked by several people when the baby is due. I am not pregnant; I am merely a larger girl with an affinity for homemaking crafts. I find myself at a loss for a response and typically end up looking at the offender with a mix of shock and surprise.

Sometimes the look is not enough, and they remain there smiling and waiting for an answer, at which point I have a tendency to laugh nervously and say something to the effect of "I'm not pregnant." I feel bad about how chagrined the questioners are, but I can't think of any other response besides making up a due date to preserve the poor folks' dignity.

Is there a better response I could give these well-meaning (and seriously misguided) people? Am I more or less doomed to pregnancy questions because the only feasible reason for a young woman to knit is that she is expecting?

GENTLE READER: As Miss Manners understands it, football players who knit do not have this problem. But we all have the problem of inspiring strangers to voice the first silly association that comes into their heads.

Pretending to be pregnant would only encourage such people to make even more intrusive comments. They have compromised their dignity enough as it is.

Unless you are knitting booties, you can merely state what it is, in fact, that you are knitting: "Actually, this is going to be a ski mask. For skiing, not for robbing convenience stores."

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I just received a wedding invitation with an enclosed response card. The response card is basically blank, but says, "The favor of your reply is requested before (the date)." What is the proper response? A note, an email, a phone call?

GENTLE READER: Why is the card called a response card? Why does it have blank space in which to write?

Miss Manners has always opposed such cards. It is not the host's responsibility to supply the means of response, and anyway, those who do so report the same rate of non-responsiveness as those who trust their guests to know that invitations of course require an answer.

But there that card is in your hand. Unless you want to be ultra-correct and respond in the same third-person form in which wedding invitations are issued, for goodness' sake, use it.

(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)

DEAR MISS MANNERS: On a trip visiting relatives, one thing baffled me. They do not put any garbage bags in their bathroom garbage cans.

So, I am always wondering if they are intended to be used or if they are just for decoration. (They are always empty, except sometimes the toilet bowl cleaner tool has been placed in there.) It seems strange to me to leave my hair or other items for disposal in the garbage can for our host to empty when we leave -- without a bag, it seems a much messier and unpleasant job.

But it is equally awkward to walk my items through the house to put in the kitchen/laundry garbage can, which is the only one that has a bag (and the only one that seems to be intended for regular use).

What would be the appropriate way to handle this? Should I bring my own garbage bag and use that and take it out when I leave? Should I use the garbage can provided and assume that the host understands there is a purpose to having a bathroom trash can and prefers it to be used as is?

Should I continue the current practice of surreptitiously carrying items to the one trash can in use? Or do more considerate houseguests just take their trash back home with them?

I always put a plastic bag in my bathroom trash cans. It's easier to clean up and seems more understanding of the need to throw things away. I guess it's not quite as neat-looking. Is there something wrong with that?

GENTLE READER: There is something seriously wrong with a society that does not understand the purpose of bathrooms -- that thinks of them as places to tease guests by displaying practical items that are not intended to be used.

The guest towel fetish is bad enough. Miss Manners used to blame overzealous child-rearing rules that left people terrorized of using guest towels even when they grew up and became guests. But then she started hearing from hosts who proudly defend their guest towels against their guests.

And now you harbor the thought that a wastebasket might be considered too fetching to use. How about the toilet paper?

At any rate, Miss Manners does not accuse your hostess of this silliness. Lining a wastebasket may be convenient, but is certainly not necessary. One does not expect garbage in the bathroom. It is thoughtful of you to want to spare your hosts the sight of your trash (it is just trash, isn't it?), but you can do that by emptying it into their garbage can once, at the end of your stay.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am planning a wedding for my friend and her fiance, but it has become very frustrating. They simply cannot agree on anything.

I am very curious as to exactly how much involvement or say a groom should have about his wedding. Other friends say the wedding is all about the bride so the groom should have no say, but others think the groom should have some say because it is his wedding, too.

GENTLE READER: Never mind whose wedding it is. Miss Manners' advice is not to make any wedding plans for this couple that cannot be canceled without penalty.

(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)

DEAR MISS MANNERS: My stepson will be married this spring, his first and her second marriage. His fiancee has chosen to wear his mother's wedding dress.

My husband will be walking my stepson's fiancee down the aisle. I'm uncomfortable about seeing this wedding dress reincarnated on the arm of my husband. (Interesting that his ex-wife kept the dress for 40 years.) Am I out of line?

GENTLE READER: You know you are. You must be exposed to the usual wedding prattle of "It's all about the bride," a selfishness-promoting concept Miss Manners loathes. But surely it did not make you think, "No, it's all about me."

Still, the situation bothers you, so it might be useful to think about why. Do you suppose that the dress will transport your husband back into feeling that he has his beloved first bride on his arm? That seems doubtful, but in any case, the reality, in the form of the lady he divorced, will be right there to shatter the fantasy.

Anyway, he might be oblivious to it all. Every time Miss Manners has asked any gentleman who attended a wedding what the bride wore, the only answer forthcoming was, "I'm pretty sure it was a white dress."

DEAR MISS MANNERS: What is the best course of action when a friend request is denied on a social network -- particularly when that person is someone with whom one had long wished to reconnect?

I recently came across a friend online who was very dear to me in middle school -- more than two decades ago -- and was very excited. We'd fallen out of touch in college. However, I noticed later that she apparently had denied my request. I was hurt that she apparently did not share my desire to reconnect, but made no further efforts. (I assume she knew who I was, as my profile has a photo and, while I now go by my married name, my first name is not common.)

If this were another person, I would just brush it off, but this is someone whose rejection I find rather baffling and saddening. Is there any polite way at all to address the matter, or do I need to just let it go?

GENTLE READER: Is it possible that your friend remembers the time you kissed her beau or returned her sweater without realizing that you'd snagged it?

But Miss Manners believes it also possible that the lady is limiting her Facebook commitment in time spent or the number of correspondents acquired. Or that she did fail to recognize you with your changed name and grown-up photograph.

There are many other forms of communication still open, such as the telephone, email and even actual letters. Try another means before you feel snubbed enough to let it go.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: My husband does not feel it is proper for him to compliment my cooking when we have dinner guests. However, he will compliment my cooking if it is just the two of us. What do you say?

GENTLE READER: About your cooking?

If Miss Manners were your guest and your husband complimented you on a meal she was eating: "Yes, it's wonderful; I was just going to mention that."

It is to avoid the appearance of prompting the guests that your husband wisely refrains from saying anything. You should compliment him on that -- in private.

(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)