Contains artificial colours. Hooray

Oh hooray, it is after Christmas and now I can actually start SHOWING YOU the things I make again, rather than just referring to them obliquely (although, all the mad things I was knitting/ crocheting? I don’t actually give them till New Year. So in the New Year we will do a big post where I show you everything, then we will move on emotionally and I will never mention it again, especially the granny square project after which I am considering counselling. Receiving, not giving). Hope you all had a lovely Christmas – we did, thank you very much, and I have eaten possibly my own weight in Christmas pudding (I think I am the only person in the world who actively likes Christmas pudding). Also I pulled a cracker and got a mini compass and I am delighted, as now I have discovered that when I watch TV I am facing True North. I wonder what that means in terms of Feng Shui?

Anyway. I made coconut ice. I made this because my mum likes it, so I thought at least it would have one fan. I knew though if I made it I would end up with a vat of it and it would take up all of the fridge, and thus it proved.

I fear I am exposing my lack of good fridge management

But I think it looks rather attractive.

It's actually rather nice. Probably because it's made almost entirely of SUGAR

You are probably thinking, how has Susie got it to be that attractive pink colour? Surely it must be through some kind of organic, natural means, possibly involving distilling essence of beetroot, or stewing plums, or combining cinnamon and turmeric or something similar?

You can see where I cut my finger. That's because our breadknife is so blunt I have to practically stand hitting the loaf with it and sometimes it gets me on the rebound

I am worried I am going down a bad path, as you can buy these paste food colourings for about £2.59 in Hobbycraft, and they give you a wonderful, intense colour. It is a far cry from having to mess about with a tiny bottle of cochineal, just a few drops of this and you get a proper, decent pink. Also they sell all sorts of unusual colours like turquoise and orange. I am sure they are very bad for you. But look at the nice pink! Think of the dramatic things you could make! (Bad path. Stop me now).

And I made a cowl for Aunty Maureen. I am 99.99% sure Aunty Maureen does not read my blog, but, Aunty Maureen, just in case you have a laptop of which I was previously unaware, please look away now, thank you.

I'll weave the ends in before I give it to her, it won't come with a bodkin attached

This is the candle flame cowl, and is a free pattern on Ravelry, here (easy, quick knit, doesn’t use much yarn, recommended!). I made it from some Malabrigo Worsted which I bought and knitted earlier in the year (it was a shrug), but, the shrug made me look truly terrible, so I decided to unravel it and use it for presents. I learned tubular cast-on and cast-off for this project (you could just do a normal one though if you wanted), so I felt that someone ought to come round to my house and present me with a knitting medal when I had done. In case you are ever tempted to try tubular cast-on and cast-off: for some reason, when you are transitioning from 2x2 to 1x1 rib (i.e. when casting off), you have to twist the stitches the other way (by picking from the front) to when you are going from 1x1 to 2x2 (i.e. when casting on, when you twist by picking from the back). That means nothing to you now, but wait, if you ever do tubular anything you will encounter the same problem I did and then you will think, wait, didn’t I read something about this at some point? On that blog where she clearly has no idea of proper fridge management and is harassed by cats and Hare Krishnas? Unless you are an expert already in which you will have read that and thought, God, she knows nothing. That is obvious.

Close up of stitch pattern. Nerd = me.

Anyway I do not know if Aunty Maureen will like it, but at least it will be an additional layer of warmth for when she is roaming in the early mornings, walking Jasper The Very Wiry-Haired Dog. So I am sure it will come in useful. And what more could one ask of a present? (Considers coconut ice, thoughtfully).