I dressed Abigail in the cutest fleece outfit on Saturday morning. It had a sheep on it so that got me thinking that I should take some pictures of her with some yarn. Here she is with some Dream in Color Smooshy Sock Yarn.

Hey Dad? I think I like this one!

This yarn tastes so yummy! And soft too!

Do I have yarn on my tongue?

I’d say we had a great weekend and I’ll post about the rest of it later!

I’m still working on the Caledonian Mist socks…getting much closer to done which is good because my time is almost up! I still don’t have a new picture of them but the second one looks almost exactly like the first one (aren’t you glad) and I’m almost that far.

I’m thinking about my next projects and which ones are going to have the soonest deadlines.  Thankfully I don’t officially have another thing that needs to be completed until the 1st week in Dec, but then Christmas is right around the corner so I should probably make a list outside of the one in my head so I don’t forget all my plans!

Terry & I were talking the other night about how much we spend on gifts and we set up a special sub-account in our savings account with ING just for Christmas & birthday gifts.  BTW I love ING and all the features you get but I think the best part is that you earn interest on your checking with no minimum balance and you get about 3.0% interest on checking & savings! If you decide to open up an account with them let me know because if you get referred I think we both get a little free money!

Anyway, I said to Terry that I’m going to try and make things for ppl for Christmas and he said, don’t you spend about that much to make something too? I had to admit that it doesn’t necessarily “save” money to make gifts for people and it adds some stress (when I get down to the wire on a deadline), but I really like to do it if I can!

On Friday night we celebrated our nephew’s 2nd birthday. He got some pretty cool presents including a very fun motorcycle!

And a “Goodnight Moon” cake.

Abigail had lots of fun with her Aunt Tracey and she loved watching this video over the weekend!

This weekend we also installed a programmable thermostat and completely rearranged the living room.

I’ll post pictures of the living room once we finish it up tonight!

I also finished a pillow I started quite awhile ago. I finished the blocks probably in June but i just never got around to sewing them together! So here is the finished product!

We had a pretty quiet weekend at home.

I got some organizing and laundry done. Then a bit of knitting on the Caledonian Mist socks and plans for our next big birthday party are in the works!

Abigail looks pretty happy after her bath on Friday night doesn’t she?

Terry worked on the lawn and some residual dirt piles from putting in the patio.

I don’t think I ever posted a photo of the finished patio–I also didn’t take a picture of just the patio so bear with me–there is a cute baby in some of them!

We got a new patio set too!

He also went mountain biking on Sunday but I’ll let him tell you about that.

Don’t you think it looks fun?

Abigail went in for her 4 month doctor’s appointment on Monday. We got there early so i figured we’d wait around for a bit. I barely had a chance to sit down and look at the developmental checklist before they called us in.

She weighed in at 15lbs 2oz, height of 26in and a head circumference of 16in.

Then we waited quite awhile for her doctor to come in. He looked her over and said she’s doing just great! He said we’ll probably have to lay her down next time to look in her ears because she’s just so squirmy! My baby’s a mover! She’s never in the same spot in her crib in the morning–she’s usually facing the opposite direction!

When we got home there was a package on the step from Michelle & Scott our good friends from Washington! Inside was the cutest blanket that Michelle (I assume Scott didn’t make it) made just for Abigail! It is so soft and Abigail grabbed it right away!

I basically finished the DIC Tulip Cardigan on Saturday night after the Renaissance Festival. I still have a few ends left to weave in on the second sleeve. I decided to use the leftover yarn for a hat for Abigail using this pattern without the face. I’m using US4 dpns and making the color changes every 6 rows.

I’ll leave you with a video of Abigail playing in her exersaucer before bed on Monday night:

On Saturday Abigail turned 4 months old–she spent a few hours in a parade listening to “Hi Baby” “Look at the baby” “It’s a baby!” She was a hit!

For a closer look at the sling she’s in:

It’s called an Eclecticos but unfortunately they are now discontinued. I borrowed this from April for the weekend just to see how it works.

Abigail chewing on her fingers last Tuesday (17 weeks)

I worked on the DIC Tulip Cardigan a bunch more this weekend. I finished the last stripe, measured the sweater and found that I must be a “bit” off on my row gauge (no row gauge was listed so I don’t know exactly how much). I knew my stitch gauge was off because I’m using smaller needles (US6 instead of US7) but I didn’t really think how that would also affect the length of the sweater. After finishing all eight colors & the edging the sweater should have been about 10.5 inches long from the top of the shoulder. I measured before starting the edging and was at about 8″–which would mean 2.5″ of seed stitch edging. I thought that would look a little funny since each stripe was about an inch wide. So I decided to repeat one of the colors to get the sweater to an acceptable length. I repeated Wisterious (the 3rd color from the previous picture/post). It looks good next to the last color Beach Fog and it comes immediately before Ruby River in the sweater which is also the edging color.

At knitting last night I worked on the DIC Tulip Cardigan in the Rubies colorway. I started this on Monday afternoon. It’s coming along pretty quickly considering the amount of time I have for knitting is not as plentiful as it used to be!

I’ve knit the next color stripe (Ruby River–I think), divided for the sleeves and started the Dusky Aurora which is the 5th of 8 colors. When the stripes are finished I’ll go back and knit the same stripes down the sleeves and then do the edging and ties with the Ruby color.

I finished the first Caledonian Mist sock a few weeks ago. Started on July 24. Finished about 2 weeks later.

I love the way the ShiBui Knits Breeze colorway looks with this pattern (the yarn called for by the designer so I’d hope so!) I love these socks!
I’m also almost finished with my first sock of the Diagonal-Cross Rib socks from Favorite Socks. Details can be found here. I started this one on July 26 but stopped when I started the Starry Night socks for my sister on August 12.

Sunday afternoon I was 4 or 5 decrease rounds into the heel gusset and I got all the decreasing done and most of the foot done that day and Monday and I started the toe decreases on Wednesday.

So that would mean from July 24 – Sept 3 I’ve basically knit 2 pairs of socks. Only one is a full set, but I’m still working on the others!

Earlier in the evening on Thursday Abigail looked like this:

Deb–thanks for the cute outfit!

While I was gone she looked like this:

Feeding herself

And like this:

On a walk with Daddy

After I got home she looked like this:

Sleepy girl

Terry works in downtown St Paul close to the Xcel. Each day this week he’s been allowed to leave work 1 to 1/2 hours early in order to stay out of the RNC traffic and protests. Because of this Abigail has gotten much more Daddy time and less Mommy time than normal. I guess yesterday while I was out knitting she seemed sad and Terry could not get her to stay awake long enough for me to get home. So he let her doze next to him on the couch until I got home.
She did wake up soon after that last picture and we talked about her day and played pat-a-cake and smiled at each other before she decided she needed her last meal of the day.

The weekend began with a trip down to Grandma Kathy’s to drop off the dogs.  Terry had to walk a mile (or so) to his car, drive to pick up Abigail, go home to get the dogs, then drive down to Prior Lake. I drove straight to Prior Lake and he arrived before I did–there was an accident at Cliff Road.  I’m so glad I don’t drive that route everyday anymore!

In every picture someone was moving–this time the blurry blob is Casey!

Saturday morning (okay it was actually noon) we left for my parents house. A quick stop at sam’s club to pick up reprints for them and some lunch for all 3 of us.

This was one of the pictures I cropped and got wallet prints of. Isn’t she cute?

Then a stop in Marshall to pick up a TracFone for my parents for their birthdays (if you want one that works on a CDMA network you have to buy it in the area it’s going to be used–they only have GSM TracFones in our area). We weren’t celebrating birthdays until Sunday but we figured it would be better for them to have a few more hours to learn things and work out the bugs so we gave it to them right after supper on Saturday.

Then Abigail got an education on the Twins from Grandpa (unfortunately they lost–she went to bed beforehand so she didn’t have to see the disappointment).

She was very well behaved except when she decided it would be fun to give Grandpa a hickey on his arm–he decided that wasn’t a good idea and gave her a pacifier instead.

I worked hard on the Starry Starry Night Socks for my sister (Knit Picks Gloss in Dolphin)

I wasn’t too concerned about getting them finished–I was working on the toe of the second sock. Then I took a little detour and helped my mom with her sock. It all worked out though because Abigail was up and hungry at 6am Sunday so I just stayed awake and finished knitting, grafting & weaving in ends before church. It is so nice to have a sister with the same size feet as you–i never have to guess on whether they will fit!

Abigail wasn’t thinking that a nap during church was a good idea, so she didn’t. We finally found a pack’n'play around 12:15pm and she slept in there for maybe 1/2 an hour while we ate (we were having a wedding reception lunch).

She finally got a nap in when we drove to my brother’s at 3pm and she slept until about 5:30 when everyone got back from playing on the lake. I got a much needed nap also!

We had bacon cheeseburgers on the grill, cheesy potatoes, potatoes & asparagus and chips. All were very tasty. My mom and I took care of the cake–My sister’s recipe for “The Best Deep Dark Chocolate Cake” with a yummy chocolate frosting that is more like a glaze, it’s got a real nice sheen to it once it dries.

My sister really liked her socks–she put them on right away!

Everyone had fun holding Abigail, playing with her and seeing how much she’s grown in the last month and a half!

I have a cute picture of the youngest cousins together! Melanie liked to try and hug Abigail until the camera came out–then she just wanted to smile for us. That was okay too!

We left for home Monday morning, stopped at Grandma Kathy’s, had an early supper with her and then brought the dogs home.

It was a very nice weekend!

Sunday night (aug 17) Abigail & Daddy had a great time hanging out on the floor reading stories & playing.

Then she decided that it was time to chew on her fist (she loves this!)

Monday we drove to REI to bring our bikes in for their Warranty Tune-ups.  I love REI! We saw the fellow that helped us find Terry’s bike and he was quite happy that we still liked it and he got to see Abigail too (she was just a BIG bulge last time)!

Tuesday was bath time w/Mommy after eating on the patio. I am usually the support person (grabbing towels, diaper, wipes, etc) while Terry does the actual bathing, but Terry was washing dishes so I washed Abigail!

Wednesday must be fun event night for us. Last week we went to the movies. This week we decided to go to the Mall of America as a last fun event since it is Jenna’s last week with us.

I got some sock knitting done while we wandered,

Terry ran into Barack Hussein Obama (Terry’s face isn’t because the sock doesn’t look good),

Abigail had a fun time looking at all the stores while she rode in her stroller,

Jenna did some shopping,

And then we had dessert at the Rainforest Cafe. Jenna & I shared a huge piece of cheesecake! Excellent!

We were shocked to discover that my brother (Jenna’s dad) was there too!

There was also a scary snake on our way out!

If we were part of “Man vs Wild” we would have killed and eaten it right there.

Tonight (Thursday) Terry is going back to REI to pick up our bikes and I have my knitting group.

Tomorrow (Friday) Jenna’s mom is coming to get her and I’m bringing Casey in to get groomed!

What a week!

If you can’t tell, we like to camp–even with a new baby!  Mostly the change doesn’t affect her, she sleeps well almost anywhere. It was a little warm on Saturday so she wouldn’t nap until we took her for a drive. We took the opportunity to have a root beer float at A&W.

We had to bring the dogs to their weekend home (Terry’s mom’s house–only when we can’t take them with) on Thursday night. Terry brought Abigail with him while I went out to knit with April. I think Kathy liked getting to see Abigail!

This is our new tent. It worked great last weekend, this weekend it took on some water. Partially how we set it up, but mostly a design issue that we’re not real pleased with. If you really care, just ask.

Abigail had fun with her grandparents (you can see my niece smiling in the background too).

We got to meet the girlfriend of a friend of ours.  Her name is Elizabeth and she’s quite nice. I think it would be good for him to keep her around! This is a funny picture, but I don’t think Paul should be jealous of my dad! I’m pretty sure she likes Paul more!

My mom and I did some sock knitting over the weekend. I’m working on the Diagonal Cross-Rib socks from Favorite Socks from Interweave Press using KnitPicks Essential Tweed and she’s working on her very first pair of socks. She wanted short socks for summer so I let her pick some yarn from my stash (J. Knits Superwash Me Sock in Cincinnati) & I worked out a basic pattern for her. I’m helping her with the toe in this picture. I don’t think she was prepared or noticed that Terry was actually taking a picture of us. I’m used to him taking pictures all the time so I always try to be ready!

I think she liked hanging out with her cousins too. This is Cora holding her.

We had a good weekend. I don’t know of anymore camping plans for the rest of this summer, but we’re already starting to plan for next summer!