Knitting Cakes

I really enjoyed knitting both the wedding cake for Jess and Niamh, and the cupcakes for a work awayday. I saw the Alan Dart pattern for the wedding cake a while ago and never thought I would knit it, however when I heard Jess and Niamh were getting married I thought I'd have a go and hoped they would like it. Apparently they do! It took about 8 hours knitting time and then an amazing 20 hours to put together. I took it over to Dublin in pieces and my daughter and I spent a whole Sunday constructing the creation. A real labour of love and this is a real one-off, it will be a long time before we do another. We did have a lot of fun doing it however and really enjoyed being so creative. The finished result speaks for itself. (http://www.alandart.co.uk/) The cupcakes were a lot easier and nearly as much fun. I got this idea from an ice-breaker I did prior to a staff awayday. I asked everyone to say what type of cake they would like to be. I chose a cupcake because they are small, perfectly formed and you can be a different one every day. I then came across a pattern for knitting cupcakes and had the idea of knitting one for all the people on the awayday. They went down really well (I think). All I have left is the photo and a desire to knit another set. At the moment I also have a jumper for my husband on the go. I'm slightly put off by his reaction which is that he doesn't like the colour (a soft muted autumnal brown in my opinion, sludge coloured in his) however I am going to finish it as fast as I can so I can move onto other things. I have also got orders for socks for Christmas from Kirsty and Corinne so need to get on with those. They have asked for bright colours so I will see what I can find in the way of wool. I am typing this up in sunny Shetland. I am up here doing some writing for a book and updating my blog as a break. We are off to Norway for a couple of weeks soon and meeting up with Norwegian friends Kari and Peter as well as doing some walking on the Hardanger plateau. I had intended to pursue my Norwegian but time has done its usual job of running away with me and I am still limited to a very few stock phrases. I will no doubt come back newly inspired and as Kari and I both use Skype maybe I can have some Norwegian lessons before I next visit. Shetland and Norway are both knitting havens and I hope to buy some wool in both countries just to add to my stash. This may have to be done secretly as my husband has still to recover from me buying 350 50g balls of locally produced Hebridean wool. I have started knitting one Arran jacket but have a lot more to knit before I get through that part of my stash! Ok, back to work and a different kind of writing. Happy knitting everyone!