Chocolate and knitting - perfect combination, and a give away!

Suse asked how the slippers look on...

They're pretty comfy and I think look kind of elfin.

In July Pooch got me a voucher for a chocolate making workshop for my birthday. And last weekend I finally went - it was awesome! There was tasting and history and then the making of 4 different recipes and then hands-on decoration. I came out with tonnes, of which these are just a small selection.

A week later they are gone, but by no means forgotten!

I've finished three socks since I last blogged. One pair is a christmas present so are on ravelry but not on here. The third sock is also a xmas present so I won't blog about it too much but seriously, look at this.

Remind you of anything? Honestly, I couldn't knit it in public. I had to wait til I got far enough along to invert the toe inside the rest of the sock and then keep it hidden like that. The finished sock is on ravelry. It looks truly awful until you put it on, then it all makes sense. This is the free pattern.

My final finished object is the bathmat, using the pattern from the previous issue of KCG's Slipknot. It was quite an ingenious pattern which worked out very nicely. I used some aran weight cotton held double so it is thick and pretty heavy but very soft and lovely to stand on.

Part of the reason I got so much knitting done is because I have been to Edinburgh on the train to give another seminar on mentoring. It was the best one yet, though I say so myself, with about 30+ in the audience and very well received. I do like doing that kind of thing - going out of the office and meeting the people I otherwise only email and helping them - making their career development a little easier. Overall I have been enjoying my new job since it began in Jan. There have been a lot of challenges and certainly the current economic shinnanigans are creating some interesting times but it's been pretty good. The only fly in the ointment is my immediate boss who is terribly overworked and also planning her wedding and I suspect is not well and combination of all three is making her a little bit difficult. Mood swings, changing her mind, wanting things now then stressing at you for expecting her to have read them. I really sympathise and I'd love to make things easier for her but she's not an easy person to help and the rest of us are all up to our eyes doing our normal work and keeping up with her demands. It all leads to a situation that takes up far too much of my time - time when I could be thinking about knitting!

Fortunately tomorrow brings a visit to Ally Pally. Like many my budget is less than half what it has been in previous years. Saving for a deposit and the rising cost of everything makes it essential to rein things in a bit. On the plus side I don't have anything particular in mind that I need so the budget I do have I can have fun with. I'm really looking forward to it!

Now finally, I had some comments from people about the noro sock yarn. I have a load leftover from making my socks so I've divided it into two lumps and if two people want to have some to play with just let me know. The only thing is you have to be in the UK. Email me at littlelixie at hotmaildotcom with the address you want me to post it to and the first two will get it. Here are the two batches.