I enjoyed my weekend. I hope you enjoyed yours as well.

Here we are on Monday morning, ready to get back to the salt mines.

Daylight Savings Time is always a little disorienting for me, and I don't believe that it produces much of an energy savings, so I don't even have that pitching in for a good cause feeling for it.

So I can't say that I am exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and rarin' to go this morning, but I do feel that I accomplished a good deal this weekend, including a good quanitity of lolling around.

One thing that I did not accomplish was finishing my jacket.

This was the jacket before I put in the lining. It fit well, felt good, and basically I loved it.

I got the lining together and put it in. I didn't line the sleeves, but instead finished the armscye with seam tape -- I love that stuff. It looked neat and finished.

I did the top stitching with great trepidation, but it turned out well, too.

And then I tried the jacket on again.

The seam tape finishing meant there was no give at the arms -- fine unless for some reason you want to move your arms. Some tiny fractional difference between the lining and the body of the jacket -- unnoticeable when the jacket is flat -- meant that one side front of the jacket ended up wavy.

The firmness of the lining meant that the princess seams now give me the old Brunhilda effect.

So I do not have a Finished Object here.

I am not sure how to fix it. I hope I will not have to take the lining out entirely. The jacket fabric has a loose enough weave that I will have to undo the stitching very carefully in order to prevent raveling at the edges.

Good thing it's my muslin, I guess.

Here, too, is the back of Bijoux, not finished either.

The choir was very small yesterday. Everyone who was missing had a good reason for being missing. However, there were just two sopranos, and not the two most confident ones, either. They got off pitch early in the anthem and didn't get back.

There were just two of us altos as well. In such a situation, you wonder whether it is better to back off a bit in case they need to hear each other better to catch their error, or to sing out more loudly in order to drown them out till they figure out their place. The director gave no hints, but just kept marking the time. I just sang it as written. Maybe the congregation thought it was a piece with edgy modern harmonies.

The Oldest Member was there. He has gotten it into his head that my name is "Peggy." It isn't. Wrong starting letter, wrong number of syllables, wrong era, not really a whole lot in common with my name, actually.

But he has been calling me "Peggy" for a long time now. At what point can you correct an error like that? At what point has it gone on too long?

The errors in my jacket are easier to fix than either of the choir-related errors. I must remember that, and be brave about correcting them.

Returning to add: Chanthaboune and I thought perhaps I could open and resew the seam of the lining, rather than taking out the topstitching. Thus, the changes would take place in a less public spot and I may be able to get away with it.  What do you Real Seamstresses think? Are we barmy?

I woke up at 3:00 a.m. filled with alarm because I had not finished either the arrangements for the banquet or the enormous macrame project. Fortunately, I was able to realize very quickly that it was a dream, that I was not responsible for any banquets or macrame assignments, and went back to sleep.

Yesterday was a day of great normalcy.

#2 son and I went to the American bakery (as distinct from the French bakery or the bread bakery) for a morning cuppa, and then went and scored a floor lamp for the reading corner.

You can see that the cat approves.

The crocheted being which you may (depending on your monitor) be able to see in the left of the picture is a birthday gift from my mother, who makes them herself.

I don't know that this corner is finished from a decorating standpoint, but it is a very nice place to sit when you can get the cat out of the way.

The dog continues to favor the window seat.

Following the shopping, I had a call from Partygirl, who wanted to borrow our stack of Southern Living wedding magazines.

We had tea and she showed me her mother of the bride outfit (which is stunning, by the way) and we had a nice cozy visit.

Then I went to #2 son's gymnastics class.

Usually he goes to class on Tuesday nights when I have a class myself and cannot watch. Yesterday was the first day he has added in the Saturday class. The coaches recommended it, because he needs more advanced work.

He is the only boy in the class. In the parent's observation area, everyone was talking about "the boy" and how good he was, and how many scholarships he could get if he would be willing to be a cheerleader.

When talk because general -- the redhead in pink's mom admired my knitting -- and we started asking "Which one is yours?" I was able to answer modestly, "The boy."

#2 son started gymnastics when he was about seven. He told me one day that there was nothing that he was best at. His brother and his sisters had various awards and honors and he, he claimed, was "the laughingstock of the world."

He was completely serious.

That Man suggested that he might be good at gymnastics, and it turned out to be an excellent idea.

The fact that I post stories like these is why I am not allowed to reveal my identity.

 I also got a good bit of scrubbing in. Here is the "after" picture of the bathroom. The kitchen also is nice and clean. The boys worked on the living room a bit, though it still could not be called clean. I may get to it today.

There is a great deal of satisfaction in having a clean house, however it gets that way.

I also did some knitting and reading and talked with my girls on the phone, and cut out the muslin for my jacket.

A "muslin," in this context, is the sewing equivalent of a swatch. You cut the pattern out of muslin or some other cheap fabric and get all the bugs out of it before cutting your "fashion fabric." From the sewing bloggers I learned the idea of a "wearable muslin," where you use something nice from the clearance table.

So I asked the nice lady at the fabric store for something for the purpose and she found me this remnant of rayon/linen/wool in a sort of plum and black tweed. I wasn't crazy about it, but that was before I worked with it.

This stuff feels wonderful.

It also goes very well with the fabrics for my SWAP Part II. And, though my poor photography doubtless makes it hard to tell, the pieces went together beautifully.

This is McCall's 4972, and it is very easy, unless I have simply gotten much better at sewing since the last time I made a jacket. It went together beautifully. Today I will make the lining and (unless church and meetings take up more time than I expect) I will have this as my sewing FO of the week.

 Still coping with insomnia over here, but I have high hopes for a return to normalcy. Soon.

What kind of goal is that?

Actually, not a bad one at all, for someone who has been suffering from excessive excitement. I seem to have finished with my movie-like adventure. Yesterday I had a major breakthrough in my computer work. It is as though someone were trying to learn to knit, and they hadn't figured out that you are supposed to turn around at the end of the row and go the other way. Chances are, nobody is going to think to tell them that. Fortunately, my mother gave me a clue that allowed me to unravel a whole chunk of the problems.

Forgive the mixed metaphors.

Anyway, once it's light, I intend to get the cleaning and errands done as early as possible so I can do some sewing today. I also intend to go to #2 son's gymnastics class, taking my knitting along.

I watched "What Not to Wear" last night, and they were again speaking out against boxy sweaters. I was knitting the Bijoux Blouse, which is so far a big rectangle, and is obviously going to be as boxy as they come. The victim in the program last night said, "I know it's boxy, but it's such a nice sweater." The tormenters -- hosts, rather -- made faces at her. She was a mom who never bought new clothes, and wore mostly jeans and boxy sweaters. Like me.

It's all princess seams in the sewing I have planned for today, though.

I may be aspiring to return to my old, normal, mom-type existence, but I am at least attempting to add a modicum of stylishness. Enough for conferences. I can wear my boxy sweaters for the computer work.

The book I am reading, A Pour Way to Die, is quite dull. Not dull enough to cure my insomnia, but too dull for you to want to read it. You would think that a book including a dead body and a couple of doomed romances and  stuff would be interesting just because of the events, but Mr. Myers is able to make it all stultifying. I should have been reading him during my adventures, perhaps, rather than Joe Keenan. Joe Keenan is the nearest thing to P.G. Wodehouse writing today, assuming that you are willing to give up the whole harmless British heterosexual aspect of Wodehouse.

Tea. Tea may help. I'll go put the kettle on.

Okay. I have had some tea. Birds are singing. Any minute now I will leave the computer and go scrub things.

I must first show you this. Go ahead. Click on it. There is some stunning jewelry there. The words are all in Spanish, and the artist has not limited her comments to "Yo soy X," "Tengo X," and "Le puedo ayudar?", so I have no idea what the words say. It's beautiful stuff, though.

Most of the knitting blogs seem to be sticking with pictures of yarn today. I cannot complain, as I have posted only a picture of a pattern. Still, this fact will make it easier for me to get to my scrubbing.

Enjoy your weekend!

Yesterday, as I was stumbling around trying to figure out the site map issue and submit to directories and whatnot, I discovered some useful numbers about e-commerce. Apparently, 19% is a respectable conversion rate. In our industry, 50% is considered good for a brick and mortar store, but we generally got 75-85% before the Recent Troubles. So far (that is, in the two or three weeks that I've been working on it) , we have about 5% at the online store. I have been focussing on getting traffic there, and haranguing people to go bookmark the site, so I am not too alarmed about that. Still, if we figure that we will achieve 19%, and that the average size of an order remains the same, then we will have to increase the traffic tenfold in order to meet the necessary sales goals.... YAAAWWWWN!

Yes, I know, this is toweringly dull stuff. Allow me to distract you with these pictures of cake, taken by #2 son, who also did the honors with the pastry brush and the whipped cream.

This cake is not only filled with sugar and refined flour, but also is made largely with processed foods.

This is not how it is supposed to be.

However, life seems to be settling down chez fibermom, and with any luck will soon return to its accustomed orderly and healthy character.

I am having fun learning about e-commerce, however ineptly. If any of you have suggestions of ... I don't know... a book I could read, or something, I would appreciate it. You guys have already provided some very useful suggestions, and I bet you still know lots more than I do.

I am also set for a couple of conferences in the next month or two. This does not require new skills.

As we have been thinking about relying heavily on the online store, I have been even more aware of how much a social event it is to shop at our physical store.

Canadian National was asking about the conversation on horror movies. I am not a horror movie fan, myself, but the fellow I was talking with was telling me about how many scary movies are based on some kernel of truth.

He explained the kinds of family relationships serial murders have, and even brought in some fiber facts.

"He had one of those dummies women put clothes on when they sew?"
"A dress form?" I offered.
"Yes. And he took off her flesh and put it on the dress form."

Now, there is just no way to provide this sort of interaction to someone who is merely buying his Roald Dahl books online.

And I guess this is why people keep saying they are sad that we are closing, now that they have gotten over being angry about it. I continue my Vanna White movements in the direction of the computer and the phone, but it is not the same somehow.

It is Friday at last. I have been enjoying my various ventures at the store, but it has still been a long week, and I am really looking forward to the weekend. I have some things planned for Sunday, but Saturday should be a day of unbounded domesticity, with enough cooking and cleaning to lift the household out of its sorry state and enough sewing and knitting to refresh my spirits. Not to mention my writing assignments, and perhaps I should not have.

In addition to "Que busca?" I can also now say "Le puedo ayudar?" If I actually have an opportunity to say that to anyone (at the store where I am now, our foreign-speaking customers are generally Asian, and I simply do not feel up to Chinese or Korean), it may release floods of Spanish. I will then have to listen closely in hopes of recognizing any words at all. In the example conversations, people are shopping for lumber, of which I have none. However, I am prepared to say "Si, tengo tarjetas y libros mathematicos." Not, perhaps, a correct or felicitous sentence in Spanish, but still, if it happens that a Spanish speaker arrives who wants to practice multiplication, I have a plan.

Let's start with The Cute Book. No one is better at Cute than the Japanese, and many Americans shell out large sums of money for Japanese craft books and magazines even though they cannot read Japanese. Cleverness is then required to figure out the directions and possible uses for the items shown.

Aranzi Aronzo's Cute Book is now available in English. This book has patterns and instructions for making "felt mascots" of great cuteness, as well as some edgy ones like The Liar ("he is proud of being surreal"). All Easter baskets should probably have one. Then there are ideas for using the little felt mascots in other ways, including on tote bags and T-shirts, hair ornaments, and so forth.

Next, Dweezy linked to Sew Fast Sew Easy, a new-to-me site with patterns and books and fun stuff for sewing. Dweezy continues to be our premier source for online underwear instructions; this site includes kits and online classes for making "Tanga Panties," and suggests having a Tanga Panty Party. You pay once for the video and can then download it ten times, handy if perhaps people are swilling sangria and miss part of the directions.

Finally, the new spring Knitty is up. As always, it contains little that I would actually want to knit, but that doesn't mean I won't visit it now and then. There is this amusing article on the mad idea that everyone ought to make a garter stitch scarf, and several nice sock patterns, including this one, Queen of Cups, which I might actually make. (Yes, I said yesterday that a different one was my favorite, but I am too old for knee socks.)

I meant that "finally" in the sense of its being the last of the craft allusions. There are a couple more things I want to draw to your attention. Ozarque is having a discussion over at her place on "scutwork," by which they largely mean housekeeping and caregiving. We talk about those things in this xanga neighborhood, too, but I think we tend to discuss them as women who accept responsibility for them. We talk about when we're going to do them, how we do them, and sometimes how we feel when we don't do them. Ozarque's contingent bring many different perspectives to the table, from the deeply philosophical to the irrationally irritable, and it is quite interesting.

I also want to tell you about Bloglines. I was probably the only person in the country who didn't already know about Bloglines, actually, but I sure wish someone had told me about it, so I am passing this along to anyone else who might have missed this somehow.

You know how you can look over at your subscription bar and see which of your xanga friends have posted? And you can look at your blogrings and see who has a new post there? And how, when people are not on xanga, you have to slog all the way across the blogosphere to see whether they have posted something new, and if they haven't, then you could have spent that time reading someone else's new post and now it is time to make the kids' breakfast and you wish you had that time back?

Well, you can go tell Bloglines all the the people you want to read, and then you simply go there, and they show you what's new, just like xanga. It is easy and free to sign up.

I encountered Bloglines (well, strictly speaking, I see the word over at my footprints all the time, but I didn't know what it was) in the course of work yesterday. I am diligently working on our online presence, and orders are beginning to come in, although I still find the Google webmaster pages completely incomprehensible.

Arkenboy told me some things to do to increase our page rankings, and I have been doing that. He also said to get a flyer with our web address on it into the hands of the people, and I have done that as well. He did not say to grab people who say they don't shop online and make them look at our website, but I am doing so. I keep it up on the store computer, and point it out to them like Vanna White. There are useful links, I say. I explain how to use the state frameworks. I click on things to show how effortless it is.

I have also begun attempting to learn a bit of Spanish. I am told that the other store has Spanish-speaking customers, and I want to be ready to ask them "Que busca?" with or without correct punctuation.

I took a 6-week class in conversational Spanish, you may recall, and learned to say "I am X" and "I have X," neither of which is all that useful in a retail environment.

Actually, in yesterday's rather brisk sales, I not only browbeat people into admiring the website, but also shared recipes, discussed horror movies, commiserated with them about testing and our store's closing, compared different methods of learning multiplication and whether doing so was any longer of any value, and explained copyright law. "Que busca?" may not really get me very far.

But the elasticity of my brain will be remarkable!

Clessidra is my favorite new knitty pattern. How about you?

I had just finished my workout yesterday morning (Kathy Smith's Shaper Ball Workout -- don't buy it. It's great on form, but too short, too slow-paced, too much talking, and no music) when the Empress called me. She was on her way over to try out a new computer thing.

Our lives right now are filled with new computer things.

I warned her about the untidiness of my house and headed for the shower. When she arrived, we spent an hour and a half trying to do... something. Not sure what. We began by following the directions carefully, moved on to plausible variations on the directions, and finished up with random stuff. Since every step from finding the Control Panel on required intensive trial and error, the task was pretty hopeless.

She went to the computer store and they helped her. "We were doing it wrong," she said, wearily, when she called later to report.

"I figured," said I.

Then I had lunch with Janalisa. She explained some concerns and frustrations regarding a mutual involvement of ours. I had some ideas, of course -- you know I love giving advice. She saw the force of my suggestion, but she said, "If you go into the meeting with that, people will not say, 'Oh, good, our problem is solved.'"

Back at work, I got all excited about the new look of our store website, the fact that 10 times as many people come visit compared with last month, and the great success of the store blog. I have no idea whether these are good things that will lead to our eventual success in this mission or not. I don't even know what success in this mission would look like. I continued to field customers' complaints and grimaces and assurances that they wouldn't shop with us any more, and presented the now 50/50 split on positive and negative comments to That Man with some semblance of jubilation.

Homeward.

In addition to failing to keep my house decent, I also had not done my homework for my Tuesday class. In my zeal to do at least some of it before class, I charred dinner, thus ensuring that both of the things I needed to do last evening would be done badly.

So, what with one thing and another, I limped through the day doing things badly. Now, I have no self-esteem issues, so I was not downcast by this, but I was in a receptive mood for last night's lesson: among other things, a timely reminder that I am not in charge of the universe. Neither is the universe conducted for my benefit.

The Apostle Paul said, "I have learned the secret of being happy in all circumstances." So I have gratefully received, this morning, a communication from Arkenboy filled with more things for me to do badly.

His last list is what has gotten us this far with the website and the store blog, so I am approaching the new list with enthusiasm. And faith.

Besides, as I told The Empress, just think how elastic our brains will be, with all the new things we are learning.

 Part of the problem with my movie-like drama is the conviction both my husband and I hold that the Whole Thing is All the Other Person's Fault.

In our more rational moments, we realize that it is not our faults, but the fault of the Criminal Masterminds, but we aren't having all that many rational moments about this.

Why does this not come up more often in movies? The protagonists should, while they are lurking, creeping, plotting, and otherwise dealing with the Criminal Masterminds, also be bickering.

"If you hadn't opened that door, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"It was the door to the hotel kitchen! How should I know there would be a dead body in there?"

And a bit later, as they are being smuggled out in standing bass cases....

"You know, if you hadn't said 'Don't worry, we didn't see anything! We won't tell!', we might have gotten away with it."
"Yeah, right! Who started humming in an unconcerned manner and drew the attention of the spies, eh?"
"Well, I don't think I was the one who insisted on joining the Espionage and Counterespionage Glee Club in the first place. "It'll be fun!' you said. Now who's having fun?"

But this never happens in movies, does it?

Ashleigh Brilliant had a little postcard that said "We've been through so much together... and most of it was your fault." 

Anyway, if you ever go to the Federal Building, you will be glad to know that they will let you take your knitting, even if you use metal needles. I did have to lift my pant legs to show that I didn't have any guns or knives tucked into my socks, so it could also be a good opportunity to show off your lovely hand-knit socks, though I did not think of that.

This is five skeins of Connemara, becoming an Oat Couture Bijoux Blouse.

The people at the Federal Building tell me that I am now through with the movie-like drama, unless the guys in CID want to ask me more questions. My husband still had more bickering to do, but he is just going to have to do it by himself at this point.

You may recall that, in addition to the workplace dramas, I have also been involved in a movie-like drama. The next episode of that is coming up.

So yesterday I cleaned out the high school Sunday School room. Some other people came to help me as time went on, and I had some boys carting random pieces of stage sets around, and girls doing creative things with the art supplies I brought in, and my co-teacher helping me throw out ancient debris from the cupboards, and it all turned out quite well.

I went home and scrubbed the kitchen and then went to lunch with my parents, and that also was a lot of fun. Then I took #1 son and my husband shopping.for clothes, and then came home and finished Pipes.

Here it is with its new long sleeves. I must get it up to #2 daughter while it is still cold enough to wear it.

If you ever want to lengthen or shorten sleeves, it is easy. It just takes a little math. Frog the sleeves back a ways. Then determine how many stitches you have, and how many you want to end up with at the cuff. Subtract the second number from the first. This will tell you how many stitches you need to decrease. Divide that number by the number of inches you want to add to the sleeve. For example, if you want to decrease 10 stitches over the course of 5 inches, you will need to decrease 2 stitches every inch. Then just do that and you will have the sleeve you want.

I also did some sewing, or at least preparation to sew. I was not ready even to do the muslin for the jacket yesterday, but I cut out an apron. I can hear you snickering. But I always wear an apron when I cook or clean, because it keeps your clothes clean and lessens the amount of cooking smells you carry around with you afterwards.

This pattern also gives me an opportunity to practice princess seams before doing the jacket.

The pattern is McCall's 3979, a retro apron pattern, and the  fabrics are from the clearance table at Hancock fabrics.

They are supposed to have a Provencal air, though perhaps that would give the impression that times are hard in Provence. As you can see from the snap in my kitchen, the colors work well, even if there is something a bit odd about the chickens in their medallions there.

I have a bunch of chickens in my kitchen. It is like the mushrooms of the 1970s, I fear, although if you think of it as a Gallic rooster, it is more timeless. I also have dragons in my kitchen, as you can see. I don't think I will dwell on this any more.

After I had gotten these bits of needlework done, I was having my typical Sunday phone conversations with my girls, and my husband overheard me saying I would have to go to the Federal Building this morning to undertake the next step in the weird movie-like adventure.

This plunged him into madness. Or at least a loony outburst. He was modeling it, I believe, on the last appearance of Rumpelstiltskin. There were many implausible and fearsome predictions, maledictions, and incomprehensible questions, as well as stamping and pounding.

 I offered not to go to the Federal Building, though I couldn't resist pointing out the likely consequences of that. My husband stamped around some more.

Do you ever feel as though you would like to fast-forward through your life a little bit? Really, I am too old to want to do that. But I think I would like to be able to peer into the future, maybe just three months. Then I could remind myself, as I go through the various excitements of my life right now, that it would all be settled down by summer, and be stoical about the current uncertainties.

Given the impossibility of doing that, I will instead try today to embrace the excitements and uncertainties of the day and experience them as adventures instead of as irritations. I hope you can do the same. In the book I am reading -- and I can recommend it heartily -- I have just left the protagonists hiding under a desk with a naked woman. Chances are I won't be doing that today. Otherwise, who can tell?

Thank you all for your birthday wishes.

It was very busy at work yesterday. The sale lured people in and the shelves are emptying, as intended. We were able to persuade people to go up to the other store and give it a look. The first online order of the New Regime came in, and the customer who placed it came into the store to tell us she had done so. She bought more items from the sale while she was there, and agreed to go visit the other store as well. One person who had been reached by the email chain or flyers came to shop with us for the first time because of the intrigue. People were sometimes sad and disappointed, but not so angry. There was in fact a fairly festive air most of the day.

Both my daughters called with birthday greetings. My boys came and brought lunch, and when I got home, I found that they had also made dinner and a cake. Today we are having lunch with my parents for further celebration.

Before that, I will be cleaning and decorating the Sunday School room.With a roll of Mavalus Tape, a garbage bag, a few yards of paper, and some outgrown art supplies from my crafts cupboard, I expect to effect a transformation. Most of the kids are off at a youth conference this weekend, so this will take the place of the lesson. Any stragglers who wander in will be pressed into service. I intend to wear jeans -- the choir robe will cover the evidence when I am actually in church.

Last week, the Baritone suggested that choir robes were a good alternative to going to the gym regularly. I don't know about that, but they do cover a multitude of sartorial lapses.

Amount of sewing accomplished so far this week: none.

However, I do expect to finish Pipes today.

Assuming that I am able to continue ignoring my messy house.