I told you that you’d see an FO post in short order… so here they are!

The pattern is Woodland Walk and I absolutely love it. Not only does it knit up fast, it’s beautiful and elegant. This is the third pair I’ve made, and it probably won’t be the last.

As I said, this pair is mine, but I’m sorry that I don’t have photos with a pair of my pretty heels…

The shoe collection is all packed up, so you’ll have to make do with my plain old feet. Well… Relic decided my photos needed something a little extra…

So I hope his appearance makes up for the lack of footwear couture.

Burton is giving me stink-eye because I’ve been sewing birds again.

Before we move, I wanted to make something special for neighbour Krista. She has two African Grey parrots (Abby and Baby Girl, and it wasn’t hard to adapt the Rainbow Lovebird pattern to African grey colours.

I don’t have the time (or enough grey fabric) to make a full quilt, so this is just a wall hanging. It’s going up to Mom’s so she can fancy quilt it. She’s going to have fun quilting around those hearts, because as you can see, they are a little on the wonky side. I decided to add the on last minute, and I was totally flying by the seat of my pants while making them. Hopefully they don’t cause her too much trouble!

With Dave’s socks off the needles, I needed to get another pair on. Ever since I finished Paisley’s cardigan, I’ve wanted to use the leftover mauve Wollmeise for a pair of socks for myself. Since it was only used for the pinstripes, there was lots left.

So I started knitting…

I know, I know – it’s already almost a pair!!! And while it may seem crazy fast (even for me…) they aren’t ankle socks, but they aren’t terribly long in the leg either (about 4.5 inches long). I have small feet. And on Saturday, spent almost 8 hours in a vehicle. It’s not often I get to be the passenger anymore, so when Dad said he was driving I made sure to pack my knitting!

I’m making Woodland Walk again. I absolutely love this pattern, and the previous two pairs I made were given away. This pair is going to be mine all mine!

Expect to see an FO post in a day or so.

As I mentioned on Saturday, Dad and I were off on a mission. We needed to go to my brother’s, pick up a box trailer, and deliver it to the new house.

Now I live in Stoney Creek (a suburb of Hamilton). My brother lives in Owen Sound, a city about three hours to the northwest. The new house is in a teeny little township called Brooke-Alvinston… three hours south of Owen Sound. And after dropping the trailer off, we needed to drive two hours east to get home. Needless to say, we had a lot of driving ahead of us (approx 617 km, or 380 mi.)

I had also bought myself a lawn mower and weed-whacker. When we did our final walk-through a week before closing, I noticed the grass hadn’t been cut, and part of me suspected they wouldn’t do it before closing. Since we will only be at the house on weekends for the first while, I figured I better come prepared, or I’d be tackling a jungle in very short order.

Dad was supposed to pick me up around 6:30 am, but just after 6, I got a call that he was having some truck trouble. He could sort it out, but he’d be later than planned. We finally got on the road just before 8. We made good time, but the delay meant we didn’t hit the new place until almost 3 pm.

We unhooked the trailer and stored it in the garage, and Dad assembled the mower while I surveyed the yard. I was right…

The grass hadn’t been touched for at least two weeks. It’s hard to tell, but that grass was about knee-high.

Did I also mention that Saturday was BLAZING hot? Like over 30C/86F hot???? It’s not a huge yard, but it looks a lot bigger when you’ve been up since 5:30 am and you’re melting into a puddle in the driveway. I did one round on the lawn to make sure the mower worked (oh boy did it! Love my new lawn shaver!!!), and declared to Dad that I would get up early Sunday morning and come back to finish it when the weather was a little cooler.

Well… you know Dads… that just wasn’t going to do. He took over, declaring he could have it done in 20 minutes.

I hope to go back this week and do a little more clean-up. The garden areas are completely full of weeds now (they were bare when we first looked at the place a little more than a month ago) and I really need to get started on preparing the catio area.

I didn’t take any more pictures, except for this little “decoration” I found hanging on the bathroom door. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before.

I think she’s kinda cute! I’ll probably keep her there.

Just when I thought I was out… she keeps pulling me back in!

And although it looks like I’m talking about the black-market kidney selling business, it actually dyeing. As part of her personal quilting adventure, Mom has discovered ice-dyed mandalas.

Unfortunately, because it’s cotton, we can’t use any of the yarn dyes. Mom bought a little starter kit, and she’s been having an awful lot of fun.

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But I must resist…. I’ve got way too much on the go right now.

Thank you for all your comments on the house closing earlier this week. I’m happy to say, things went quite smoothly. We got an email from the lawyer that the deal was done, and an hour or so later, we had the keys in our hand

It was a little anti-climatic, actually. It probably would have been more exciting had we been moving in that day, but as you know, we’ve got some renovations to do before we make that leap.

As you read this, I should be on the road to my brother’s. He’s giving us an old box trailer so we can haul away all the old carpet and paneling as we pull it out.

Meanwhile, back in the garden, we are in a bit of an “in between” time. Most of the spring flowers are done, and the summer flowers aren’t quite ready yet.

The Iceland Poppies are one of the few things blooming. In fact, I’ve never had so many blooms up all at once on them.

The ants are hard at work on the peonies. I expect they will fully open this week.

In another week or so, I should have some ripe, juicy strawberries to eat. That is if the buns leave them for me. It won’t happen this year, but I plan to build some big raised beds for edible gardens at the new place. One will be ALL strawberries.

The Bachelor Buttons should start blooming soon too. These ones always bring in the bees.

It turns out, I lost four roses in total after the great garden move last fall.

Since I’ve forgotten which I planted where, I have to wait for them to bloom to know which ones survived. I really hope Garden Party and Honey Perfume are among them. Eventually there will be LOTS of roses at the new place.

Meanwhile… Burton has discovered the cat nip pots…

Happiness is…

Yep. They are done already. I can hardly believe it myself. It feels like I just cast on.

It’s true that I had lots of sitting and waiting time that helped this pair along, but they still went much quicker than I expected.

I love this colourway. Although they look quite yellow here, they are actually more green in real-life – a real chartreuse.

I am so glad that Dave likes to wear “fun” socks. I wouldn’t make him nearly as many pairs if they all had to be boring grey, black or blue.

Although, the rest of his wardrobe is generally all black (black jeans, black shirts) and trying to get him to add any colour there is like pulling teeth.

So I’ll make the most of it with his socks.

This pair is now tucked away for his birthday in late July. I just have to make sure I remember which box I put them in when we move!

Another quilt is quilted and bound.

This was one of my Leader/Ender project.: Colourful nine-patches to use up a pile of scrap squares. It’s fun and simple with a spectacular result.

I punched it up a bit with my favourite rainbow-variegated thread. It doesn’t show great in the pictures, but it really pops in real life.

For the back I had this nice, cheerful aqua stripe, and the green binding is leftover from the back of the Zebra quilt. You’ll also notice our little branded tags sewn in. Mom had them made special. The underside is the washing instructions. I think they are just so cute!

This one isn’t going into the shop, but into the gift pile for Christmas.

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Before I wrap it up though, I’m going to have to give it a good going over with a lint roller. As you can see, Relic gave it a full-scale quality inspection.

Silla is finally done blocking, and has all her ends sewn in and buttons sewn on….

And you may be thinking she looks a bit different than you last remember. After I got the knitting finished, I just wasn’t 100% loving that green. And since I wasn’t keeping it for myself any more, it wasn’t really suited to the recipient. So, while I was dyeing up the last of the Fluffy Cat, I tossed it in a big bowl of blue dye.

Because of the green base, it came out this lovely, mottled teal. It’s a colour that will suit the recipient MUCH better. And it’s just perfect for the buttons I had picked out for it.

I bought these Abalone shell buttons from a bead store at least 10 years ago now. They’ve been sitting in my stash since then, just waiting for the right project.

Overall, this was a fun knit. The pattern is simple and easy to follow. Because it’s done on big needles (7mm), the fabric, even though it’s bulky, has a really nice drape. And it doesn’t feel heavy at all. I will definitely make one for myself, just as soon as things with the house settle. (Today is closing day, so no doubt, by the time you read this, I’ll be running around like a chicken with my head cut of, trying to get the keys!)