My SWAP III storyboard lasted all of one day before requiring adjustment. Oh, I had already chickened out on using the mushroom gabardine for the 3-piece suit (the fabric is too beautiful for me to use for an untried pattern, so I switched to the clearance rack blue-green one instead, intending to work the mushroom-colored suit in later), but that was before I made the storyboard. It doesn't count. Yesterday, though, I cut out my print skirt and then found that I didn't have quite enough for the matching top. The store has sold out of this fabric.

I am thinking that I will do an Elizabeth Wilson type of piecework (asymetrical panels, she says, in a limited color palette) and see how that works out.

We took what may well be the last zucchini out of the garden, along with these handsome hot peppers, so it was time to make ChowChow.

ChowChow is a spicy relish made with squash, onions, and peppers. You chop it all up and let it sit with salt for a few hours.

If you do this, by the way, you must be sure to use pickling salt, not table salt, or your vegetables will get slimy rather than crisp.

You're looking here at four cups of squash, one onion, and a cup and a half of mixed hot and sweet peppers. Four tablespoons of salt.

After it sits around for a few hours, you drain and rinse the vegetables. Then boil up two cups of cider vinegar with 3/4 cup of sugar and a teaspoon each of ginger, dry mustard, turmeric, and mixed pickling spices.

Simmer the vegetables in the pickling mixture for 20 minutes. Can the resulting ChowChow, or just put it in the refrigerator for up to three months.

Great stuff. It will revolutionize your burgers.

At book club yesterday, we had read The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and were talking about our favorite cubist painters, and our favorite novelists from the 1920s --

-- and I would just like to say here how relaxing it is to be able to have a conversation like that. There are circles in which you cannot even mention such a topic without offending people. I have a dream, though, that someday the reasonably well-educated will be able to sit down with the ---

Anyway. The Pianist was telling me about how she was thrown out of the library in Lafayette for wearing pants. It was in 1966 that this happened, and it was actually the second time she had been thrown out of a library.

Apart from that interesting and wide-reaching conversation, and computer work, and the creative endeavors described, I spent most of yesterday sipping iced tea, reading a light-weight mystery, and knitting Ivy.

Today is the last day of the Summer Reading Challenge, but I will be too busy to do much reading, so I had to do it yesterday. I was reading Murder Most Frothy, a pleasant enough novel with far too much detail about coffee. You know how murder mysteries now so often have some little gimmick -- "with recipes" or they are about knitting or the detective is a dry cleaner and the stories include stain-removal tips? That is a stupid trend, IMHO. Did Dorothy Sayer make her novels be about rare books? Did Patricia Wentworth turn Miss Silver's knitting into a gimmick? Anyway, this book had decided on coffee as a theme, and I truly do not care. I won't recommend it. Nor did I like Freddy and Fredericka -- in fact, I didn't even finish it. Instead, I will recommend The Devil Wears Prada, if you are in need of a beach book.

Busy today, busy, busy, so I had better get started.

 The Australians may have been the ones to formulate the Sewing With a Plan system, but the storyboard seems to have been a Canadian inspiration.

The idea is that you draw your 11 garments and add swatches of the fabrics, and that way you know what you're doing. When you have time to cut or sew, you don't have to spend that time trying to recall your plan, but can glance at your storyboard and get right to it.

Some of the sewing bloggers have electronic ones where the picture changes from black and white to color after the item is completed. I find that impressive, but I have no idea how they do it.

I have not yet decided what pants pattern to use. My TNT pants pattern is easy and comfortable, but it has a side zipper, which I just don't like as well as the front zip. I had to cut out the skirted suit to be sure I had enough fabric before I could put it on my storyboard. This is a lightweight wool from the clearance table. I found a twill that was just one shade darker to make pants from, and that will be my three-piece suit. The print will be my two-piece dress. I threw Ivy in there, since it just keeps growing without ever becoming more interesting for a portrait.

I have a khaki twill for the other pair of pants, and a couple of extra fabrics so that I can do wearable muslins of the new patterns.

I guess I'm ready.

Here's what I made yesterday.

It's almost time to begin sewing the SWAP Part II -- I hope to make final decisions and make my storyboard today -- but I wanted to have another madcap sewing adventure before I got back down to serious sewing.

Making panties and slips had turned out, as you may recall, to be easy, but a bra seemed likely to be a real adventure. I had read that perfect accuracy was required, and the pattern directions mentioned the danger of eye injury, so I was looking forward to something complex. or at least madcap.

You trace off the pattern. The one pattern (this is Elan 510) has all the sizes. There are only three pattern pieces, and only 13 steps, so it was clear at this point that this was at least by the usual pattern standards an easy thing to make. I tried to be accurate in my tracing, but couldn't really infuse any sense of danger into the experience.

I used a kit from SewSassy fabrics, the same place where I got the specialized stuff for my previous lingerie-making adventures. The business of figuring out what fabrics to use and so forth seemed too complex for me, so the kit was the best choice. The kit is about $10 and includes enough fabric for three or four bras, but only one set of findings. I went back to their website to see what would be involved in buying the clasps and straps and so on to use up the rest of the fabric and found that the findings are sold mostly in dozens and I am still confused (what's the difference between strapping and finishing elastic?). I may email them and ask if they couldn't just send me a refill of the findings. As far as price goes, I could just buy another kit and still be way ahead of RTW, but then I would still have fabric to use up, and it could be a terrible cycle. Plus, I think it would be fun to try different and interesting fabrics with the pattern. Possibly I should just buy the things in dozens and figure I would use them up over the years.

In any case, you begin with a very simple seam or two, basically just encasing the top cup (lace) in two layers of the lower cup. The lower cup is nylon tricot, and that led to the first complex thing: my machine flatly refused to sew it. It has never been asked to sew nylon before, and it responded by throwing up knots of thread every few stitches and sounding as though it planned to throw up its engine, too.

I have a sewing book from the 1950s, and I found that it was quite helpful on the subject of nylon.

The 1950s, to judge from this book, was a time when people wore nylon often and on purpose. The author clearly preferred it to natural fibers. She says that it is longer wearing than cotton and "impervious to body oils," whatever the heck that means, and cautions against using cotton thread. Don't use cotton thread, don't use cotton lace, don't backstitch -- there are all these rules for sewing nylon.

Fortunately, I remembered that one of the sewing bloggers had recommended sewing bras entirely by hand, since they use little fabric but have lots of precise small spaces. Not to mention the nylon.

Accordingly, I curled up in an armchair with The Devil Wears Prada and my little bits of nylon and sewed it by hand.

All was going well until it was time to put in the underwire, at which point I discovered that said underwire extended by more than an inch beyond the channeling.

Having no idea what that meant, I just went ahead and constructed the thing and put in a shorter underwire.

After the photographed parts, the rest is just a matter of normal sewing. You sew the cups to a band and then sew on the straps and sew on elastic -- no special techniques.

How did it turn out? I am not sure. It is pretty, and it looks like a RTW bra, so in general I feel as though it was successful. I think that the way the clasp is put on leaves the cups too far apart, so that the wire would stab you in the fleshy bits by the end of the day. I may just fix that.

There is also a bit of the Renaissance Faire costume to the bra once it is on -- you know, the thing where the breasts are sort of served up like a couple of dishes of flan. My first thought (particularly in light of the fact that the underwires provided in the kit didn't fit) was that the bra was too small. However, a look at the pattern illustration suggests that this is how it is supposed to look. "Low-cut" is how they describe it, and it probably would give a girl a nice cleavage in a low-cut dress.

I think we all know that you can't tell at the beginning of the day how you are going to feel about a bra when you take it off in the evening, so I will have to suspend judgement on the question of fit and comfort and all that. However, in the matter of construction -- is it reasonable to make your own bra? -- it turns out that it is in fact easy to make a bra. I think you would have to be more skilled with the sewing machine than I am to do this on the machine, but most people are. Even making it entirely by hand, I got it done in an afternoon, after I had cleaned the house and done the grocery shopping and taken #2 son to gymnastics, and I did it while reading. Not an ordeal by any means.

If I make another, I will probably use the Lycra satin I have on hand rather than the nylon tricot, although I can't think what I would do with the remaining tricot in that case. The fabric for the band was described as "Spandex," but it most reminded me of screen door mesh. I've never seen anything like it. Looking at the SewSassy website, I concluded that it might be Powernet. It is pretty cool stuff, actually. I read advice on bra-making that said always to make them in white and dye them if you want other colors, since otherwise you will not be able to get perfect matches among the materials, and this seems like sensible advice, given how many different substances go into the making of them.

So I guess it is now possible for me to report a final conclusion on the lingerie question: yes, it is indeed easy and inexpensive to make your own.

As for the book, I would recommend it. If you saw the movie first, as I did, you will find that the book makes more sense (like, why did she apply for that job and why did they hire her, points which are never clear in the movie). It's really the perfect thing to read while making a brassiere.

My lack of photographic skilz means that I have to just tell you that this Joseph's Coat rose is particularly beautiful, with crimson outer petals and a heart of gold.

I have the whole weekend off, which is why I have time to enjoy the roses.

"Day off" for me always has to be understood to begin after a couple of hours of computer work, and "Saturday off" in particular has to be understood to include grocery shopping and housework.

However, I am excited about the prospect of grocery shopping and housework, because the results are so satisfying. If you have been living in a grubby house and the kids have eaten all the food, the opportunity to clean and restock in a leisurely fashion is appealing.

We've already established that I'm not really all that busy, and to prove it I have Ivy, in the midst of the armscye shaping.

I realize that I am still just showing you a gray stockinette rectangle. Once again, I will just tell you that it is soft and light and beautiful and hope you believe me.

This is Knitpicks Essentials, which seems to be used almost exclusively for socks among the knitting bloggers. They are missing out. This works up into a really nice fabric, and I think it will make a top which will be a pleasure to wear.

That is the Doctor's Bag peeking out from under it. No further progress has been made on that. I may be living the life of Riley, but I haven't had the kind of concentrated knitting time it takes to pay proper attention to the slip-stitch pattern. Especially when I have lots of lovely stockinette available to knit instead.

One more picture, this one taken by #2 son, who enjoys taking silly pictures of the animals.

This is our intelligent dog, Fiona. You can't tell that she is an intelligent dog from this snap, but I think that #2 son was inciting her to be silly. If she were a celebrity, she could sue him or something.

I have ascertained that my choices for breakfast are squash, cucumbers, onions, frozen peas, popcorn, or rice. I think I had better get to the grocery, or the farmer's market at least, before the ravening hordes awaken and start calling for sustenance.

Busy again this morning... It seems as though I get up busy even though it isn't yet 6:00 am, and then I stay busy all day.

This can't possibly be true, since I am still reading and knitting and lolling around some, but it feels that way.

Yesterday I did the morning computer work, and then went and did a workshop. I got compliments all day on this workshop, which was fun. Most of the time, we don't get much recognition for our work, beyond a paycheck, which is plenty, it seems to me. But I went right from the workshop to the store, and people from the workshop kept coming in to shop and saying how much they had enjoyed it. One person from a workshop last month came in and said "We are still talking about how great that workshop was." It was like the few minutes at the end of a performance when people say how much they enjoyed your solo, but it went on for a long time.

We were very busy, though. I tried to keep the shop looking good, but by the time I made it around the store once, the first part that I had done needed work again. Like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. The customers are mostly still cheerful, though, so it is fun.

After work, I got home to find that Netflix has a new thing called "Instant Viewing." You tell them what you want to watch and they just play it for you right then. At no extra cost. I was way too impressed by this. In fact, I told Partygirl about it during our walk. She doesn't have Netflix and is if anything less techno-savvy than I (hard as that may be to imagine) so it took a while to convey the idea, but I was just that impressed, that's all.

We didn't walk as far as usual last night, being as we were both exhausted, but we have gotten into the habit of talking for an hour or so, so we repaired to her rose garden. We sat on the porch swing by her wall of ivy, surrounded by roses and fireflies, with mason jars of iced tea, and solved the problems of the world.

I then headed home for some time with my family.

That doesn't sound so busy, does it?

I spent yesterday morning preparing for today's workshop, fixing up the store blogs in accordance with advice at Sphinn, and keeping our website on the front page of Google. 

Then I headed off to spy on the competition and make copies of the handout. After that, I stopped in at the hairdresser. She took pity on my shaggy state and cut my hair real quick while her other customer was under the dryer.

"My dear," said that customer as she passed me ont he way to the mystic room where they keep the dryers, "you have gorgeous hair."

I have graying hair -- 35% so far, my hairdresser tells me. And it was several weeks overdue for a haircut, looking shapeless and "oggy doggy" as the hairdresser says. I have never asked her what that means, but I know it can't be good.

Still, I do have thick, healthy hair. It may no longer be chestnut colored,but there are days when it has a bit of the Rita Hayworth shape left to it. I had about convinced myself that this was what the lady meant when my hairdresser returned.

"That's my little Alzheimer's patient," she said apologetically. She then spoke to me with firmness about my Rita Hayworth effect. "You shouldn't let your hair get this long. It drags down your face."

Saved from conceitedness, I submitted to my haircut and went on to the many appointments of the afternoon.

Above you can see the progress on Ivy as of yesterday evening. Today I am in an enormous rush and may not get in any knitting at all.

Last night Partygirl and I walked in the park. Sometimes we do the urban hikes, but it was a long and busy day at work yesterday, so I was glad to have an easy little walk. The path is .85 of a mile, and we can do four turns around it before it gets dark, so we can feel as though we've gotten some exercise.

Lots of other people were out there, too, strolling with or without dogs in the heavy humid evening. The cicadas were making such a racket that we had to talk rather loudly to be heard over them.

And, because we live in a small Southern college town, people join in one another's conversations.

When I had been living here a while, I went back to California for a visit and had to just bite my tongue not to join in everyone else's conversations.

You'll be walking along and overtake someone, or someone else will overtake you, and for a minute there it is as though you were at a cocktail party and you have a little conversation before the speed differential parts you again. The fact that all the walkers and runners are moving at different speeds allows us to enter and exit one another's spheres for a while.

So a young bearded man passed through and Partygirl chatted with him a bit. And we admired the dogs of a woman walking in the opposite direction. She had a King Charles Spaniel scooting along ahead of her and a Daschund toddling behind trying to keep up.

And then a few hundred yards later Partygirl was telling me how Obama -- she persists in calling him "Osama" but I think that is a slip of the tongue -- had said that people say he is "not black enough," but that he had claimed he was black enough when he was hailing a cab. We were pondering what that might mean. Was he claiming that black men had special cab-hailing skills which he displayed at the right moments, or what?

A woman in hot pink came up behind us and explained, "He means a black man can't get a cab to pick him up in New York City."

Our experience with taxis is limited. In fact, the only time I have ever hailed a cab (as opposed to calling one) was many years ago in Baltimore, and the driver was a black man. He berated me for my hailing technique. "Don't be cute!" he said sternly. I had to explain that I was from the country and had never hailed a cab before, and he did take me where I meant to go, but the experience didn't leave me with enough information to understand Obama's remark.

Does it seem to you that we are the slow ones? It is true. We are the ones ambling along sorting out whether the angry bridesmaid was the bride's second cousin or first cousin once removed, not the speedy ones getting breathless.

We are enjoying ourselves, though.

Palmer and Pletsch have clear directions for buying the cloth for your SWAP. You determine your best colors according to your natural body colors. You go to the fabric store and find an excellent neutral from your list of best colors. You find a perfect print containing that color and at least one other color that you really love. You drape the fabric around yourself to see how it looks, enlisting the help of a friend or a mirror to determine whether it is truly becoming. You carry this bolt around the store and find coordinating fabrics.

If you don't find all the fabrics you need -- and this may be my favorite part -- you take that bolt back and start over.

These ladies don't live in a little town like mine. They live in a town with enormous fabric stores stuffed with lots and lots of wonderful fabrics.

Anyway, once you have lined all your coordinates up on the counter, you buy 8 yards of your basic neutral so you can make a three-piece suit. You buy 5 yards of your print for that 2-piece dress. Then you buy 2 or 3 yards of each of the others for tops and skirts or pants.

These ladies also don't have a budget like mine. I agree with their instruction to buy the best fabrics you can afford, but I would have to scale down a lot if I bought the best fabrics I could afford for 11 garments all at one time. However, I am sure that they are correct that this would be the best way to ensure that your SWAP goes together with maximum efficiency.

I have bought all the fabrics for my SWAP. I had to do that before the first tuition payment came due, because now I will not be able to buy anything again for four years, as I mentioned.

I have two local fabric stores. Mostly they have quilting cotton and synthetics. I did find some nice fabrics in those stores, and even some on the clearance table, but my local choices are very limited. So I bought most of my fabrics online. I used three different companies. Let me share my experience with you.

I want to say first that all the companies I tried -- as well as SewSassy and Keepsake Quilting, the other online fabric companies I have experience with -- were quick, courteous, and accurate. Apart from the obvious disadvantages to buying fabrics without seeing them first, the online fabric-shopping experience is excellent.

Candlelight Valley Fabrics has the best website, no question. They have the most information on their fabrics, including sewing hints, care instructions, suggestions for the best amount of ease, and photos both flat and draped. Their site is easy to navigate, you can sign in and they will remember you for the future, and everything is very clear and easy.

They also have a really nice arrangement for finding coordinates. I got my print there, as well as my basic neutral, mushroom, and an aubergine jersey for a top. They suggested lilacs and greens to go with this fabric, too.

 Yes, I have noticed the preponderance of gray in my wardrobe. Taupe and camel are big for fall, and this "mushroom" seemed like my best shade for the general earth-tone resurgence. And yes, I have noticed that it is pretty close to being gray.

This is not an inexpensive place, but I felt that their prices were appropriate, and shipping was not outrageous. They do not offer patterns, notions, or any of that sort of thing, but their selection of fabrics is wide. Had I been determined to use the Palmer and Pletsch method of fabric shopping, I could actually have done it at this shop, and they even have nice lingerie fabrics, so I could have made slips and linings and stuff from the recommended coordinates.

They included nice large swatches with my order. In their place, I would have chosen swatches that went with what I had ordered, but the ones they sent certainly confirmed the quality of their fabrics.

Emma One Sock (EOS to the sewing bloggers) has the best service. I have no complaints about anyone's service, but EOS sends you free swatches, answers complex questions, gives you a discount on your first order, accepts checks, and all that sort of thing that we associate with humans rather than computers. They told me about my discount after I had already sent the check, and I asked them to make up the difference by adding a bit of length to the fabric. They not only figured out what I was asking and agreed to it, but also were generous with their calculations.

Most online fabric stores will sell you swatches, by they way, and they help a lot. EOS sent three swatches to me for free very quickly, and I was able to check the colors with the fabrics I already had, to compare the quality with what was available locally, and to make my order while the fabrics were still in stock.

They have amazing fabrics, such as this French cotton Cluny lace. In fact, they seem to specialize in amazing fabrics. I could not have bought all the fabrics for my SWAP there, but perhaps a more adventurous person (Kali Mama?) could. I don't actually know what I am going to make with this lace, but I look forward to thinking of something. It is beautiful with the other fabrics, and may add a needed jolt of surprise to my sensible (gray) wardrobe.

Fashion Fabrics Club has the best selection and prices. They may not actually have the best values -- EOS offers that lace for $18 a yard, an amazing price -- but they do have lots of fabrics from $1.99 up. They have lots of specials they will gladly email you about, and they send you coupons and swatches in the mail.

They carry interfacing, thread (they'll match the color for you), and some trims, as well as Italian scarves and some notions. Actually, you never know what they'll have. They have very high turnover, so if you see something you think you want, you should order it then. Chances are it will be gone next time you look.

Since they are a discount place, you should expect some differences from the more luxurious sites. Sometimes they accept an order and then ship with a notice that one of the fabrics is sold out. Sometimes a fabric is not what you expected. For example, I bought two fabrics for my SWAP Part II, both labeled "Tencel Twill" and described in identical terms except for color. One was beautiful, but the other was a looser weave and had odd striations that I had to cut around, thus losing some yardage.

I think this goes with the discount aspect of the business. I've ordered from these folks several times, though, and expect to continue ordering from them. I bought a couple of shades of linen for blouses for the SWAP Part III.

And I suppose they do both appear gray. I think that they are blue and green, but they do seem to confirm the general overall grayness of my wardrobe.

Good thing I have burgundy in there.

I also want to report that I bought some fabric at a local shop when I picked up my hem tape. #2 daughter specifically forbade me to buy this fabric last year when it first came out (part of a general embargo on paisleys, which I have largely ignored), but when I saw a skirt length on the remnant table, I gave in. I include it  in recognition of the fact that much fabric is bought in a spirit of irrational enthusiasm unconnected to our best-laid plans.

Palmer and Pletsch say clearly "Do not even look at anything that is not in your palette," and this is good advice. People who follow their advice will have all their SWAP fabrics and no too-bright paisley corduroy which will clash with their other fabrics. But I think that I will enjoy this in a long gored skirt in the winter when I have been wearing a lot of gray.

  Here's how it was at my house yesterday. This is #1 son reading the new Harry Potter, with the help of the cat and an ever-growing pile of detritus on the coffee table. Reading and game-playing were the main activities.

There was some knitting. Actually, there was a lot of tangential knitting. For example, the cows in the Wii game "Charge!" are knitted -- you can see the stockinette stitches of their hides when they are up close.

And the excellent book Grave Apparel which I was reading has at the center of the plot the issue of seasonal sweaters (those with snowmen or scarecrows or heaven forbid reindeers and elves) and the people who hate them.

I also looked at a new knitting book.

Lacy Little Knits by Iris Schreier is a very interesting book. There is no actual lace in this book. It is a collection of knits that get a lacy effect from openwork stitches done in unusual ways. The author is best known for her modular knitting, and that is mostly what is in this book. I think it will most appeal to experienced knitters who want to do something different, but it is possible that people who like a lacy effect and are scared of lace knitting will find their solution here.

The first 14 pages explain the philosophy and the special techniques. Then come 23 projects. There are some very unusual ideas here. There is a top that is begun by knitting directly into a tulle scarf. There are tops made with alternating rows of silk and mohair. There is a blouse with a multidirectional band up the front of the stockinette.

Little lace jackets are one of the side threads of the fall fashions, and this book has several very nice ones. There are also shawls, tanks, blouses, tunics, scarves, and skirts. Most are in fairly small gauges (5 stitches to the inch is most common) and sizes range from 35 to 51 inches at the bust.

The photographs are beautiful. All the models are white and all are slender, but there is a wide range of ages, which is unusual. You may not care at all about diversity in knitting photos, but I always notice it, myself.

I was going to mention a couple of really ugly things, but then I happened upon another blogger's review and they were the very ones that she had singled out as her favorites, so I'll just say chacun a son gout. I determined to make the diagonal cardigan first, and found several others I expect to make eventually.

The cardigan in question takes only 4 skeins of Artyarns Rhapsody Silk. I know that Artyarns is pricey stuff, but I thought -- four skeins. Perhaps that wouldn't come to so much. I looked it up. That stuff is $40 a skein. The other yarn frequently mentioned in the book is over $20. At that rate, you are looking at $60 scarves, $160 sweaters, and $240 tunics.

This seems particularly steep in light of the fact that the garments are made in surprising and new ways, and could therefore be unsuccessful. Now, both Elann and Knitpicks offer silk blend yarns in the $3 a skein range, and it would also be possible to sub wool or cotton or rayon yarns (though the author warns against it), so it is possible to make these designs for less, but it got me thinking about the question of what a sweater ought to cost. I've said before that the typical knitter who makes two or three sweaters a year can buy luxe yarn and still spend less on his or her hobby over the year than a golfer. And I just did a search and found that these prices are what you would pay for a ready-to-wear 100% silk sweater. And that would of course be made by machine.

I begin paying tuition for #1 son this week, so I will not be buying anything for the next four years. I am therefore able to contemplate this question in a detached and abstract way. It still seems like a really high price for yarn. Perhaps the book should have had a disclaimer on the cover: "Achtung! Replicating these garments will cost you a surprising amount!"

I did some housework, though no yard work. I skipped the BBQ and instead made a nice dinner for my family.

The dessert is #1 daughter's Fresh Fruit Indulgence, the recipe for which you could find by looking at the "recipes" tag.

There are also enchiladas. Making enchiladas is not difficult. You need to make a filling. This you do by shredding up some leftover beef or chicken. If you didn't think ahead and have no leftovers, just put some steak or chicken in your crockpot in the morning and you will have it all ready by the time you need to cook dinner.

Chop a bit of onion finely, shred some cheese, and mix these things with the shredded meat. Roll the filling in warmed tortillas and lay them in a baking pan with the seam downwards. Pour sauce over them and put them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

You can make a sauce by melting a tablespoon of butter and stirring in a tablespoon of flour. Cook it carefully to get rid of the floury taste, and then stir in a cup or two of chicken broth. Once it is thick, whisk in either tomato paste and chili powder or sour cream and chopped green chilies. You can also buy sauce in a can, and sometimes I do.

Cut up tomatoes and peppers to serve with your enchiladas. Mine came from the garden, and how lucky we are, too.

I am working at home today, getting ready for tomorrow's workshop and catching up on the computer work. I have been trying to increase the local usefulness of the website (that is, people coming into the store with their lists printed out from the website, or ordering within our delivery zone) without getting too many mail orders. This is not that easy, at least not for me. I proposed to The Empress that we try, once Back to School is over and we have time, to figure out how to be glad of orders from Massachusetts instead of treating them as a problem. Then I could just promote the website vigorously without fear of the flatness of the world (in the Thomas Friedman sense). We sent an order off to France the other day, and I don't think that it was really more trouble than the one we sent off to a neighboring county at the same time. But of course I am not the one who sends the orders. Nor the one who gets the stock in to fill them. I don't even pack them, so what do I know?

She is trying to figure out a way to do this. In the meantime, I am trying to be ingenious about my website promotion activities, rather than vigorous. It is an interesting exercise. On a par with modular knitting.

My gardens are neglected and jungly. This is partly the result of the usual summer lassitude, but mostly the result of the continued presence of poison ivy in the beds.

I guess we have had poison ivy for years, because I have had terrible rashes every year from working in the garden. This has not kept me from working in the garden before. Back when I figured that I had an idiosyncratic allergy to salvia or something, but was unable to identify the source of the problem, I went ahead and worked in the garden anyway.

Now, knowing that it is poison ivy, I cannot bring myself to work in the garden for fear of getting the selfsame rashes I get every year, and which I could now presumably avoid by paying slightly more attention to what I touch.

Maybe it is just summer lassitude.

Anyway, you can see that we have vegetables growing in the jungle. The flowers are not doing as well. I may be brave this afternoon and get to them.

#1 son provided music at a Harry Potter party the other night and was given a copy of the new Harry Potter. He had the first copy of the first book in our area, because I got it for him based on the Advance notice back when it wasn't famous.

I didn't even buy the Half-Blood Prince, because we hadn't enjoyed the one before that very much, but I'll probably read this one since we have it in the house. We loved the first three.

In addition to reading and music and not gardening, we are playing games. Last night #2 son played Wii with me and his dad. I lost abysmally every time. We played a game involving racing cows (my favorite), pool, tennis, golf, a game in which we had to find particular Miis in the crowd, and one in which we had to match shapes in bubbles. In every single case, I lost at about 341 to 2.

My Mii (the character who represents you on the screen) cried each time. I didn't, of course. I was a gracious loser. But it was a bit depressing to see my character moping and crying while #2 son's character exulted and got electronic cheers. Every single time.

Possibly I was tired from work. Let's have that be my excuse.

It was quite busy yesterday, and I spent the day unpacking boxes, popping out to the front every few minutes to help with a customer. I am delighted that the store is busy. I was delighted that people from neighboring counties called us to sign up for workshops because they had read about it online. I was delighted to see more online orders coming in.

Still, I was ready when I came home to sit and knit for a while. Here is one skein of Essentials finished. The garter stitch edging is rolling, predictably enough. I usually change garter stitch edging to something else, but this pattern was designed by Elsebeth Lavold, for whom I have enormous respect, so I didn't. I may crochet around it at the end if it is still misbehaving.

Today I must go to church and the grocery store and possibly work in the garden and clean the house, but I intend to do a good deal of summery lolling as well. I was supposed to go to a barbecue, but The Empress and I have both talked ourselves out of it. Lolling around sounds better.