socking it to London

So my lovely brother and his wife have birthdays on consecutive days and are currently living in London so these socks were completed some time ago. They did however arrive safely and were unwrapped over the weekend.

For my SIL I revisited one of my favourite patterns which I've also made for my mum, see here. This however is the alternative version with the lace pattern continuing all the way down the foot (straight laced). The cables are mirror images of each other which adds a little interest.

The pattern: Haleakala by Cookie A

Yarn: Caper Sock by String Theory

Colour way: Charcoal

And can I say this yarn is really fabulous. As well as a sensible nylon component for durability it also has 10% cashmere for sheer delightfulness.

For my brother, I knitted my new favourite sock pattern for blokes. I think I might be knitting this one again. It's a kind of faux argyle sock pattern using travelling cable stitches which really 'pop'.

I also think the eye of partridge heel looks really good with a variegated yarn.

The pattern: Business Casual by Tanis Lavallee

Yarn: Caper Sock by String Theory

Colourway: Peacock

And can I just say that I was a little disappointed that the colours weren't a bit more lurid - I think my brother can really pull off a cheeky business sock :-)

winter hedgerows

I thought that the socks I made for my sister were actually quite gender neutral so I thought I'd try them again with a masculine feel for her husband: heavier weight wool and a more neutral colour. These are the biggest socks I've ever knitted so they took AGES. And I think they might even be a bit big :-/ Oh well... I've ravelled them here.
Here's the comparison:

his...

and hers...

I'm now in the process of trying to get pictures of each of the recipients in their socks in some zany situation. Let's see how I go.

Anyway, better get to it. 2 more pairs of socks to knit this month :-)

badger's birthday cake shenanigans

The key to making children's birthday cakes is resourcefulness. You inevitably end up making the cake very late at night. And something always goes wrong. I was endeavouring to make 'Wally the Whale' from The Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Cookbook. You can find other more successful attempts here and here. But needless to say, Badger's cake does not bear much of a resemblance.

The underlying cake structure for Wally the Whale is a very large rectangle. I was endeavouring to make sure that my cake was nice and flat so left it in the oven to slowly cool overnight. Unfortunately I forgot that I tried the same thing last year and that it's very hard to get a cake out of a tin the next morning. It's best to do it sooner rather than later.

So unfortunately a vertical half of the cake was all that came out intact. Here's the detritus of what was left behind.

Not to worry though because one long strip of cake is all that's needed to make a one which was all that was required in Badger's case. The artist husband helped to shape the one (which I think looks like the ones in channel 11) although Giggi the 4yo did think it looked like a 7. We also managed to find pretty special looking chocolate tools, so all of a sudden we have a Bob the Builder cake - the yellow of the icing didn't quite come out in the photo. A few m&ms and hey presto we have a cake that looks like we made a bit of an effort although it doesn't much resemble the initial inspiration. Never mind.

It all looks pretty spesh once you add a candle....