The longies really did get finished eventually, as did my xmas presents!

Since I'm back blogging again, I might as well update on what I have actually gotten done over the last few months.

The longies, of which I'd only done the waistband last time I posted eventually got finished in January.  I really love how they colours pooled differently in the different sections.  These longies were my first attempt at Kitchener stitch and everything I've read about it was true, you really have to concentrate or you'll mess up, at the start at least.  I ended up making one small mistake, but over all I think it was a success.

An action shot of the longies, expertly modeled by The Boy.

In addition to this I also had a few Xmas presents that I finished in December, in addition to the Pig t-shirt and the ITNG t-shirt, I did another appliqued t-shirt, this one for my nephew.
He's recently started playing football and I thought a personalised shirt might be nice for him.

Front, with his initial on a badge

Back, the panel at the top had his surname, and then the number 10 below.

Again, it's felt appliqué, this was my first go at machine appliqué.  The different layers of the badge and the name panel were sewn by hand and then the front badge, and the number 10 were sewn onto the shirt by machine, and the name panel was attached by hand.  I really enjoyed making this, although it was A LOT of work and I ended up still working on it at about 2am on Xmas morning!  I remember my mam doing similar when I was little, I'm getting so like her LOL!

First longies and some baking

I've eventually started knitting my first ever pair of longies.  I'm following Joeli's tutorial on Cloth Nappy Tree.  I have to say, it's great, Joeli's written it out for complete beginners and experienced knitters, it's really easy to follow.  I'm using my lovely hand-dyed wool and I love how the colours are turning out.

(I really must apologise for the terrible quality of my photos, I need to get the hang of this photography (as opposed to snapshots) thing.  You'd never believe that many moons ago I did a photography course, would you?)

I've also discovered the most delicious beer bread.  The recipe is from Recipe Zaar.  The Blokey asked me to try the recipe after seeing it recommended on the Homebrew Talk forum.  It's absolutely scrummy!  I've cut down the sagar by half in my version though and used salted butter rather than unsalted to make it a bit more savoury.  My most recent incarnation of it also included about a cup of grated red cheddar.  Delicious!!

 

Mmmmmmm, don't you just want some?!