Been a while... update with pics!

Update time!

Doggies...  Ike's going to the vet for his annual vaccinations tonight - that'll no doubt go down as well as vet trips usually go with him!  In recent news, he was left unsupervised for a few hours in my in-laws house and behaved the whole time, no food thieving, no destruction and no killing of the cat, so I was a pretty proud mum!  While we were there that weekend we went for a wander round Talkin Tarn, it was very cold but very pretty so I took a few piccies:

My two gorgeous boys together:

And then we met a little puppy - a 12 week old Wire-haired Viszla called Loca, who was very gorgeous but not keen on staying still for photos!  Ike was brilliant with her - he just had a good sniff and wagged his tail.  More proud mum!

Next up, knitting.  Been pretty productive this last few weeks since I finished that flipping shrug!  I've got started on the bolero for the multiple weddings this year, so far I have one sleeve and a shoulder so that's not bad going.  I've also completed a little something that is a birthday present for someone so I can't post a pic of that yet, and I've started a pair of socks for another someone's birthday too, so again, no pics.

Things I can post?  Socks for me!  Namely some Jeeves socks for me, knitted in some thicker wool than normal for socks bought for me by my brother and his OH for Christmas.  It's lovely and soft and knitting up really quick because of the thickness of the wool.

And, oh, go on then, it won't give much away to show what I've done so far on the birthday socks, since it isn't much, although in my defence I only started them on Sunday night!  Don't tell anyone I showed you though!

Next up, food....  Not a huge amount of excitement in this department really.  I did make some scrummy roast sweet potato soup with homemade bread the other week:

 But that's about it really.  Not helped by the fact that I keep forgetting to take pictures of stuff!

Music has been quiet too.  Choir rehearsals are trundling on in preparation for the next concert in April.  Band rehearsals are also pretty quiet - we're aiming for a concert in late May/June but nothing's actually booked yet.  I'm limited in how much I can play depending on the state of my back too, so I don't always get to rehearsals.  Plus the sax section has been decimated since the new school year started thanks to exams for the kids - last year we had 6-8 altos and 4 tenors, this year it's been an average of 3-4 altos and 1 tenor (me) which makes it so much harder to make a decent sound.  And I definitely can't manage to play all three tenor parts for Birdland on my own!

Nuff whinging - over and out!

It's done!

Yes, it's official, the endless Stocking Stitch Shrug (Rav link) is finally finished!  Some piccies:

 Isn't it pretty?  I love it, and it's so warm - although annoyingly the weather has warmed up this week so it's not as in use as I wanted it to be, but I'm sure the UK will oblige again very soon and get cold.

And, as an added bonus, because I didn't use anywhere near as much wool as the pattern suggested, I made some matching Musketeer Mitts (Rav link) too!

 Also very impressed with these - this is the most cabling I've done in one project so I'm really chuffed with how they turned out.  Yay! *Happy face*

And as a random added extra, because I don't think I uploaded this before, my Christmas cake (which, admittedly, wasn't decorated until after Christmas.  Whoops!):

New Year, new start

So, it's that time again - New Year.  Or, at least, it was a few days ago anyway, but work has been manic so I've not had time to update till today!

Christmas with the sin-laws was lovely, as always - far too much food and drink :-) but good company, good telly, and good presents, so you can't go wrong really!  Had some lovely knit-related gifts too - two Rowan pattern books, and 4 balls of snuggly gorgeous Rowan yarn from my brother - excellent choice little bro!  Also cooking gifts - the Great British Book of Baking and a pretty bun tin from my uncle, also excellent choice - I've made bread using its recipe, which turned out great, and some Yorkshire Teacakes, which, um, less so!  Nuff said on that front I think, but they did make a great bread and butter pud a couple of days later!

So, dog update...  Well, Ike's doing well, although he has moulted like crazy over the last few weeks, which has left the house looking like it's snowed indoors.  Good excuse for a new hoover in the sales before the VAT went up though!  Otherwise, the fur is looking great.  We've reduced his medication from yesterday on the vet's advice, so we'll see what happens now I suppose.  FOA continue to be over-run unfortunately - we're trying to reduce the number of dogs in kennels to bring costs down but there's so many furbabies coming in that it's proving rather difficult unfortunately.  The pre-Christmas auction and raffle both raised a lot of money though, which is helping.

Knitting continues apace - I managed to finish 7 mini stockings for gift tags, so not everyone got one I'm afraid, which feels like a bit of a failure, but I reckon 7 in a week isn't bad going.  I think for next year I'm going to start earlier, and knit a bunch in co-ordinated colours to make a garland.  I'm about 4-6 inches away from finally finishing the Stocking Stitch Shrug that I've been working on for ever and a day, hurrah!  I laid it out on the sofa last night to measure it, and it does look big - no wonder it's taken a long time!  If I'm well behaved and don't knit anything else, there's a chance it might be done for the end of next week, which will feel like a massive achievement!  Over Christmas I also finished the first sock of Circle Socks, which looks great, and I've done about half the leg of the second sock - this will get more attention when the shrug is finally finished, although it is much more portable that the shrug now so it's going out and about whereas the shrug is strictly home knitting only now.

And finally food (since there's been no music going on over Christmas)...  As mentioned above, I had a bash at some more bread last week, which again turned out really well (no pics I'm afraid, I forgot!).  The teacakes were decidedly less great. they didn't rise at all for some reason, I don't know what I did wrong...  Finally cut into my Christmas cake last night though (pic to follow) and it tastes great but is a little bit dry, incredible really when you consider how much booze went into it... How strange.  Other culinary delights over recent weeks have included bread and butter pud made with the flat and doughy teacakes, which was yummy, and a big batch of mince pies that went with us to the sin-laws, and went down really well, so can't have been that bad! 

The bad news is that I'm restarting my diet from last year - my little brother is getting married at the end of July, and I will not be the fat unmarried older sister.  I'll just be the unmarried older sister, which is bad enough, and more than enough ammunition for me to need much gin to get through the day with my grandparents telling me that I'm being left on the shelf, without them telling me I'm fat too!  I'll still be doing cooking, just healthier stuff!

Over and out!