It's Chriiiiiiiiiistmaaaaaaaaaaas!

It is! Ok - so technically, it's only 13 minutes past midnight, and I won't be getting any presents for another 9 hours, but I don't care.

I spent my Christmas Eve with the family, Sean in tow. I made cakes a-plenty and ate too many tiny sausages. Damn those things are good. I may have had some beer too, I can't remember.

I've just finished another batch of cakes. So today, thats a total of 12 rock cakes with raisins, a tray of flapjacks and 45 fairy cakes with white and milk chocolate chips.

Mmmmmm, cake pr0n....




Here they are, posing with my tree.



Yes, I am aware it's the tiniest tree ever, but I love Albert nonetheless. I even made him a tiny origami star. When it gets warmer, I'll take him outdoors and give him a bigger pot. And just for fun's sake, I'm going to measure him every Christmas. At the moment, he stands a whopping 6 inches.

Have a good one!

It's Christmas! (well almost...)

I'm sitting here, sucking on Quality Streets (mmm...toffee pennies...), watching the Top of the Pops Christmas special, and finishing up my last gift.

Can it get any better?

Probably - some hot chocolate would help. And some tinsel. And turkey. Ah well, you can't have it all!

Santa Swap

Over at Ravelry, I did a little Santa Swap with the lovely Camille. And yesterday morning, I managed to wake up early enough to greet the postman.



What a great parcel, eh? I can finally finish my crochet scrumble! The yarn in the top right is Wendy Moiselle, a gorgeous wool and ribbon tape mix. I think I may knit Urchin with it...

F.O. - Aunty Alice's Quilt

I managed to whip this up in just two days - I'm highly impressed with myself.



My Aunty Alice (technically my great aunty) is a fantastic woman. She's the elder sister of my Grandad, and I really look forward to seeing her whenever I go 'op North' to see my grandparents. Her son died before he had any children, so she looks upon her great-nephews and nieces as her grandchildren. For a lady in her 80's, she's as sharp as a tack, with a wicked sense of humour.



I made the quilt for her for Christmas, after I saw how much she liked the one I made for my Nanna for her birthday.
Time - around 8 hours.
Total Cost - About £2.00. Most of the material was from my scrap bag and I only needed to buy the lining.

(and in other news....my five fruits jumper has been sent to the frog pond. I don't have enough yarn, so I'm making some mittens and a hat instead.)

W.I.P - Five Fruits Jumper

Mum's Cardigan is done! (well almost, I'm debating whether it needs some sort of ribbon re-inforcement around the neckline). But, you're getting any pictures of it untill Christmas comes round. Why? Because I can't find the best way to display it without it looking like a lump of green mess. So you're just going to have to wait.

I started the next Christmas present though. It will be a jumper for Leon, brother #4. He is one of those 5 year old that truly appreciates handknits. December Magknits has turned up just in time, with a really lovely top-down child's sweater. Of course, it only goes up to 18 months, but I actually did some swatching (shock! horror!), so it should fit.



Ok, so I got a little ahead of myself, and cast on without the correct legth of needles. I should be using 60cm, but I only have 40cm. So, it's like a little blue/white stripy mess right now. Eh, I've been working, and my LYS isn't open till monday.

So here I sit, 3 minutes to 1am, knitting like wildfire and waiting for Sean to arrive home from an Orange Goblin gig. I think I might go bake some cookies.

F.O. - Peek A Boo Mittens

Wow - who tohught I could truly be that bad at updating every day? Needless to say, I've failed the NaBloPoMo Challenge, managing to post a super lame 16 out of 30 days.

Anyway, on to the better news. I finally got round to taking pictures of my Peekaboo Mittens, which I adore to death!



Pattern: Peekaboo Mittens, Magknits Feb 2007
Yarn: 1 skein of James C. Brett Marble DK in Amethyst
Needles: 4.5 DPNs
Mods: Well, my gauge was off, and making them to size would have resulted in monster sized mittens. The pattern circumference is 8", my own hand is about 5" at it's widest. I know, I have freaky tiny hands. Anyway, I ended up casting on 40 sts and following the pattern for worsted weight version.
They still turned out a little too big, I'd use smaller needles if I were to do them again.



Time: About 3 days.
Cost: £4.50

All in all, a cute pattern and fab yarn!