Dave’s birthday socks are underway!

The yarn is some BFL I dyed up specifically in colours I could use for man socks. This colour is “grasshopper” and while it looks a touch bluish here, it’s more of a vibrant grass green with just a touch of yellow.

The pattern is Petty Harbour. I’ve seen a few of you knit this one, and it’s a nice bit of texture to keep a man-sock interesting. I haven’t decided if I’ll carry the pattern down the foot yet. I’ll worry about that when I get there.

And while these socks have a deadline (July 20th), I’m still trying to stick to my self-imposed goal of one ball a week on the barnyard sweater… so I’ve got to put these down for a bit and work on that stinky thing… sigh….

I gave you a glimpse of the sampler blocks I’m doing for Mom to fancy quilt, but I thought you might like to see a little bit more of her version while I’m working away on mine.

This is her completed top. As I mentioned, she used a range of pastel solids for hers (whereas I’m using ditsy prints). I convinced her that the dark grey Grunge fabric was the way to go to make all those colours pop. She was unsure at first, until she got it all together.

Now she’s working away, block by block, and quilting the devil out of it!

I’m having a lot of fun watching her, and it will be interesting to see what she does with my version.

 

The  skull heart hat was completed in plenty of time to give to the birthday girl.

It’s nothing too fancy – just a fingering weight beanie with the skull chart (adapted from this pattern) four times around the hat.

It fits me (I have a small head) so it should be good for Arabella with a little room to grow.

It’s fingering weight, so it’s nice and light. Alley Cat for the main yarn, and Twinkle Cat for the skulls – adding just a touch of sparkle.

Arabella’s Dad sent me the above picture not long after we drove by and dropped off her present. If you’re wondering about the beard – her day had a pirate theme. When we were there, she  had a tricorn hat on – but no beard.

But as you can see it’s a perfect fit, and apparently was a hit with the birthday girl – so I’m happy.

Now I’ve got to get moving on some birthday socks for Dave… I’ve got just over a month left to get them finished!

It’s strawberry season!!! Strawberries are my very favourite fruit, so I absolutely love this season. All though I have some growing in my garden, it’s not enough to satisfy my love for fresh, locally-grown berries.(California berries just aren’t the same).

I may have gotten a little over-excited when I saw them in the grocery store on Friday. But that’s ok. There’s a quart just for random berry munching. There’s also a quart for strawberry shortcake – I’ll be whipping up some hot-milk sponge cake today!

And then there’s two quarts left for…

JAM!!! … so I can make this deliciousness last allllll year long.

 

Because there’s nothing better than a little taste of summer slathered on an English muffin come December.

Because of the late cold snap we had this year, my gardens are a week or so behind. Normally this time of year we’d be celebrating the beginning of rose season.

But so far, no blooms yet – though lots of promise with buds on almost all the bushes.

My oriental poppies are more than making up for it though.

I don’t know if it was the wet spring, or the plants are just well established now, but they’ve gone gangbusters.  The red ones bloomed first (as you see above) and they are close to being doing.

But the white ones are just getting started.

They are one of my favourites in the garden. I wish they bloomed all summer, but in another week they will be finished completely.

I’d really like to get another Coral Bells or two. Not only do their leaves come in a gorgeous array of colours, they have these sweet little white flowers.

Same with the Sagifraxa. I bought it on a whim last year, and I’m so glad I did. I have two of these hardy little guys right in the front of the sidewalk garden.

My little white Bleeding Heart in the sidewalk garden has put out two tiny little blooms. I really should move it to a sunnier spot so it can really shine.

My peonies will be open soon.  I’ve got about a dozen buds on the bush this year.

 

 

I really love this adorable fluff-butt!

 

It took me four tries (and a lot of ripping) but I’ve made it through the first front on the barnyard sweater.

I don’t know why it was so difficult for me. But it did. But I persevered and the right front has been conquered.

Admittedly, it looks really weird. That large wedge of garter is a shawl collar that will roll back when the cardigan is worn. At least in theory.

But, this does look similar to the schematic in the pattern, so it should all work out.

In the mean time, I’ve got the back stitches picked up and I’m working away on that. It’s just plain rows with a little decreasing, so there shouldn’t be any ripping.

At least… in theory…

Of course, I have to get the darn thing back from Burton, first….

Time is ticking away, and while there is no deadline for Rainbow in the Dark, I don’t want the project to linger on too long either. I’d like to have the quilt to my friend by mid-summer if possible.

So, it was time to tackle orange.

I dipped in to my yardage, and raided Mom’s stash and came up with just enough fabric for the seven orange blocks needed for the layout. And as you can see, I was pretty liberal with what I deemed “orange”

They look nice and cheerful next to the yellow blocks though.

Now there’s just red and purple left.  Eleven blocks of each!

An old high school friend put the call out on Facebook the other day…

His lovely daughter, Arabella, is celebrating her eighth birthday in the age of COVID. As our province is still being cautious (and rightly so, we’re still averaging between 300 and 400 new cases each day), large gatherings of five or more people are still not permitted. That means no birthday party for poor Arabella.

So my friend asked his facebook friends and family, if we were available this Sunday between 2 and 4, would we mind driving by and giving his lovely girl a birthday honk to make her day feel special?

How can you say no to that? Especially as they are only about a 10 minute drive from our house.

Dave has the Great White Whale out for the summer, so we’re going to put the top down and cruise on by in style. He probably won’t let me decorate it, but still, I think it will be a bit of a thrill for the family.

We are going to stop just long enough to give the birthday girl a present too. So my needles have been clicking furiously.

Arabella loves purple and skulls, so I pulled the chart from this pattern. I’m working it up into a fingering weight beanie – because no one wants a heavy wool hat in summer! I’m using some Alley Cat that Rowan dyed (Lavender for luck), and some leftover Twinkle in Coal. Fun fact – this friend is actually my brother’s best friend from high school, so it’s kind of neat that my brother’s daughter made the yarn that is being used in the hat for his best friend’s daughter!

Anyway, as you can see, I’ve got a floofy little taskmasker watching my every move, so I better get back to it… there’s only a few days left to finish!

The Spin Me Right Round top is together and ready for quilting.

It’s not huge – 47″ x 57″. I had planned to make it bigger when I first started, but as I got going, I realized I didn’t have as many solid scraps as I thought. In fact, I had to dip into some of my yardage to even get this many.  Still, it’s a nice sized lap quilt

You may recall that I said I planned to use black for the sashing on this one. But as I’ve also mentioned, I’m trying not to spend one extra penny on any of my projects. The solid black I have on hand will likely be needed for Rainbow in the Dark. I was wracking my brain for what I could use for this instead, when I remembered I had a big chunk of solid navy that I’d bought when Mom and I stocked up on “essentials” before COVID shut everything down.

As you can see, it worked perfectly. And I had this beautiful bold floral print with a navy background hanging out just waiting to become a border. I love how the colours in it tie in with the colours in the pinwheels.

And keeping to things from the stash, I have  this cute little heart print for the back. I almost don’t want to use it – I have about 5.5 yards which is ideal for a much larger quilt. I kinda hate to cut it up for this one, but it works so well. And as I said, I loathe to have to go out and buy something.

The binding bin yielded up the pink, which was leftover from the back of Rowan’s flower quilt. I think it ties it all together quite nicely!