Knitted Christmas socks

I have made socks before (not as complicated as it sounds) but this is my first attempt at patterned socks.

The first sock I made looked ok, but I had a bit of a problem in that it wasn't stretchy (due to the 'floats' as apparently their called, which stopped it stretching) so this became a stocking instead, a nice stocking though!

So second attempt I looked up about floats and pattern knitting to get some tips on what to do about the problem. Now one sock down and almost through the next, and they are now stretchy yipeee!

Heres where I started:

You can just see the pattern emerging on this sock

A sock almost done

And my first Christmas sock completed, quite happy with it :)

Homemade

I have been busy making lots of chutneys this week. I started off with a tomatoe chutney, my fav I think.

I then made a spicy apple chutney

Then- my first attemp at lemon curd, came out well, reminds me of lemon meringue pie! And look how yellow it is, no colouring or anything.

Chocolate cake

I do like a good chocolate cake and I made this one with white chocolate icing. Was very yummy (though not as neat as it could have been!)

Cupcake

I have just been experimenting with making cup cake cases. I saw a beautiful butterfly one in a magazine and thought it was amazing, though unfortunatly very expensive, so I thought- y not make my own?!

So here it is, thought it would be cute for birthdays. I have also been preactising my icing skills to make these pretty little choc cupcakes.