Vincent was diaper free yesterday. He used his little potty all day (with reminders from me, but twice he told me he had to go)and had only one accident in the afternoon. Hurray! It would be so nice to be done with diapers already.

I'm having a Pampered Chef party tonight. My friend and neighbor, Darla, is starting as a consultant. I hope it is a good one for her. I really want to help her make a go of this. She needs to quit doing daycare, and has high hopes for her PC business.

The stripey sweater is zipping along. It's a top down raglan, and I only need a few more inches of body. I ended up doing a lot of knitting yesterday.

It's been a while since I've done a long stream of conciousness ramble...

We went to dinner at the ILs last night.  It was a pretty good visit.  After dinner , instead of twiddling our thumbs we went for a walk to a nearby playground.  The kids had so much fun and the walk was really nice.  It gets so boring sitting in the ILs living room with nothing much to talk about and just watching the kids play for a couple of hours, so it was great to be outside and moving instead.

Our chickens are getting really close to laying.  Their combs have gotten larger, and the combs and wattles are getting quite red.  I can't wait for the first eggs!  I'm very glad we got the chickens.  Even without the eggs, they are a fun and low maintenence pet. 

Speaking of pets, we are babysitting our neighbor girl's fish this weekend.  LOL  The kids are thrilled, and love feeding it (three flakes for each girl and one for Vincent to give three times a day).  It's quite the pain to count out individual flakes, but we have to make it fair doncha know.  :D

We are going to our friends' cabin next weekend, and all going to the Kickapoo Country Fair sponsored by Organic Valley.  Lisa is doing one of the Sustainability Presentations, and John has to man a booth for their book, so we'll help out with Liam, their son.  It looks like it should be a fun day.

The Cable Weave sweater body is finished.  I love it!  I want one in my size!  I still need to do the sleeves, but that's on hold until I get some size 8 dpns.  I could work them in a magic loop way (even thought my circ isn't a super long one), but I'm really not fond of that.  Maybe I'm not getting the concept correctly or something, because I've not met anyone else who didn't like the magic loop.  I started on Isabella's stripey sweater yesterday.  It's a top down, in the round raglan, done in stripes of purple, yellow, pink and blue.  I'm randoming the stripe size, and debating if I'll random the order too. 

I so need to finish sewing up my Jagaer Cape sweater.  Two little seams and the neckline, and then it'll be done.  I'm not one who loves finishing, which is why this has languished.  I guess that's why I love designs that are worked in the round or the ones like Green Mountain Spinnery has that are done bottom up in the round, and then the shoulders are bound off together.  No seaming sounds great to me!

I've found a pick your own blueberries place about an hour away.  I want to go, but I want to know how much they charge and when they are open.  I've called three times in the last 2 weeks, and they haven't returned any one of my calls yet.  Argh.  I might just buy a case from Brennans (a local fruit/veggie, cheese and wine store) if they don't call soon.

Our local farmer's market moved up to the square.  It's closer now, and we are always up on the square, so I'm actually getting up there.  It's good stuff, very cheap, and everyone I've bought from so far doesn't use chemicals ("those are too expensive" they say when I ask).  Can't go wrong with that! 

Goodness, but I am up waaaay too late tonight.  Luis was home by noon today due to all of the rain we had here, so he decided today was the day to reformat the computer.  He's been wanting to do this forever, and he finally did.  Oh my gosh, how scary is reformatting???

He put in a new operating system (windows XP) with profiles for each of us and the kids.  Now he won't worry about the girls messing something up when they play nickjr.com.  He also got me a new version of Outlook. I can actually use my address book again, woohoo!  Somehow he messed up our old Outlook last fall, and I was never able to get into the address book again.   HOWEVER, he didn't back up our bookmarks correctly, so I have lost alllllllll of my bookmarks.  ARGH.  All the knitting patterns I had saved, all the birth and breastfeeding site, all the homeschooling resources, everything is gone.  Talk about frustrating.  I must say, though, that if he had to lose something in the process, the bookmarks were not a horrible thing to sacrifice.  Much better to lose those than my pbk stuff or emails I needed. 

On the knitting front, the Galaway Sweater is zipping along.  I'm having so much fun knitting this one that I just can't seem to put it down.  The front is completed up to the neckline, and the one side is finished.  I just need to finish the other shoulder now, and then do the sleeves and neckline.  I'm going to have to commit on a neck pretty soon.  Welts or ribbing - which will it be?

I've taken the plunge and am creating my own sweater out of the Galaway yarn.  I'm doing a pullover, working in the round from the bottom up.  The bottom has a slight rolled hem (I love those on kids sweaters) with an inch of ribbing, then is straight stockinette.  At the armhole divide, I did a garter stitch ridge, added some stitches and began the texture.  It's a cable weave pattern that is absolutely gorgeous.  I took it off a sweater in the Green Mountain Spinnery book that I love.  It will have a simple crewneck, but I'm still debating if it'll be welt like in that sweater, or if I'll do a plain ribbing to coordinate with the hem. 
 
I cast on too many stitches when I started, so Vincent will get this sweater, but not until Abigail and Isabella have had their turns.  :)  It will be the perfect size for Abigail for winter this year.  I have the bottom completely done, and I only need about 1" more of the cable pattern in the upper back.  I can't believe how good it looks.  This yarn really shows the texture nicely, and the dark red it lovely.  It will look so good on all three kids, and it's a classic, unisex style so I know they will all be able to wear it. 

We took the girls to the dentist for the first time. I was positive Isabella had a cavity or two. Two of her top teeth chipped when the teeth under them came in back when she was about 1. We've been keeping an eye on them, and they were darker in the back than the rest. A couple of weeks ago, she mentioned it hurt to eat meat, so we took her in to get them checked and to get Abigail her first checkup too. Given Isabella's nervous personality, we weren't sure how this would go.

It was great! The hygenist was fabulous with them both, and both enjoyed it. While her teeth are badly chipped and worn, there are no cavities. Talk about a relief. Both she and Abigail got their pictures taken for the "No Cavity Club". :D They think they are pretty cool stuff now.

Our library is doing a really great summer reading program, with both a program for keeping track of how much you read and weekly events. Abigail is really into it. She has been going to the events and having a blast. This week is Gold Rush week, so they'll be panning for gold and learning about rocks.

Time for a little knitting update today...

My Cape sweater is nearly done. All of the pieces are knit, one sleeve is attached and one side is completely sewn. I just have to attach the remaining sleeve, sew up the side and do the collar. It looks really nice; I love the olive-sage color.

I've started a new project, also one from Jaeger. This one is using Jaeger Aqua, a really nice mercinized cotton, in a mahogany brown color. It's called Jig, and it's a rib (6x2x2x2) rather mock turtleneck. I think it's going to take a while to do, what with the ribbing and being 6 sts to the inch. It's something I'll wear for years though.

The latest pair of socks in the Fortissima Colori Mexico Demin are complete. I'm nearly out of sock yarn! Ack!

I bought some Galaway wool this weekend to do a sweater for Vincent. It's a dark red color, and I think it would make a really nice crewneck sweater with cables. The only problem is that I can't find a pattern for what I'm thinking of. I'm thinking of adapting one, taking a pattern I have for a simple crewneck and putting cables on the upper chest like an adult sweater I like from the Green Mountain Spinnery book. Do I feel brave enough for such an undertaking????? If not, I'll probably do a modifcation of ribbed sweater from Debbie Bliss' Cotton Knits for All Seasons or a cabled jacket from the same book. This yarn is screaming for texture.

My Rosemary's Middle Sweater (Green Mountain Spinnery pattern) is coming a little farther along. The body is completely finished, so now I need to either buy the Denise set of needles or a 16" size 9 circular to finish the arms.

I did up a cute little stripey hat for the baby of one of my sister's friends. It's in Jaeger Aqua, a slate blue and sage green striped pattern, and has a little I cord topknot at the top. It's just darling.

I need to start planning some new sweaters for the girls for this winter too. I have this purple marl sweater I did last year for Isabella that she has outgrown. The color is just a little too girlish for me to keep it for Vincent, and I have more of the yarn, so I do think I'll frog the thing and reknit a larger one for this year, sizing it with some growing room this time! I'm rethinking a sweater for Abigail too. I have some of this Reynold's Gypsy to use up. I knit her a sweater with it last year, but I still have tons, and the sweater from last year shrunk up funny. It's also rather heavy. I need to come up with a lighter sweater with this yarn. It's supposed to be worsted weight, but I might work with it at 18 or 16 sts/4" instead to get a lighter, more airy sweater.

We had the best weekend. First some background. Our friends, Lisa and John of the cabin, got married 8 years ago. At their wedding, people were having a great time and asking when they were going to get together again. Lisa and John said "Come out to the farm for July 4th weekend." The Reunion, as they call it, was born. For 8 years, an eclectic group of people, many of whom had never met before this, have been gathering at Lisa and John's farm for a few days around July 4th. They have had as many as 65 people there, sleeping anywhere they could or camping around the farm. The mix of people varies each year, with new people coming or old people missing.

We have gone out for various activities prior years, potluck or tie dying. This year we went out on Friday with the camper and stayed through Monday afternoon. It was an amazing weekend. We'd met some of the people before, but got to know them a little better this weekend, and met many new people as well. There were probably about 35 people there, all walks of life. There were kids from baby through 12 years old, and a community of people to keep an eye on them and play. John had gotten a wagon of straw bales for the express purpose of building forts for the kids (later to go into the garden). Water balloons were flying and squirt guns were shooting. The big project was putting a composting toilet into their barn. Saturday was rainy all afternoon and evening, so the normal drive in movie was out, but we all gathered in the greenhouse and cantina for good conversation. Sunday was the potluck, tie dying, knitting circle and martini bar. :) Some musicians came out play outdoors during the potluck. It was such a great atmosphere. I haven't had that much adult conversation time in years!

We can't wait to go back next year. :)

It's our 9th wedding anniversary today. 9 years. It seems like just yesterday; it's not possible that it's been that long! 14 years and 2 weeks since our first day. Wow. I guess I'm not 22 anymore, eh?

I'm having a fireworks sale at Peanut Butter Kisses. 20% off all outdoor play toys, Woodkins and dollhouses, plus all organic cotton bedding, pillows and mattresses. Stop on by if you need anything, or pass the word to a friend! :)