I carved a pumpkin!

I'm not really one for Halloween, but last week my son requested that we carve a pumpkin, so I thought we'd give it a go. Last Monday we picked up our pumpkin, purchased from a house round the corner from us that always has a stack of pumpkins at Halloween, and finally got round to carving it on Saturday.

As this was my first go at carving a pumpkin, I decided it would be wise to watch a couple of videos on how to clean out a pumpkin, and quickly realised it wasn't going to be as hard as I thought it might be - just cut the top off, scoop out the gunky bits and give the inside a bit of a skim with a spoon or ice cream scoop. My son was fascinated by the insides, but didn't want to touch them, so I did most of it myself while the kids pulled faces.

Fortunately my son's decoration requests were simple: a spiky mouth and some triangle eyes. We managed both with a small sharp kitchen knife, then stepped back to admire our handy work. 'Now it needs a candle Mum.' Yes it did, but I hadn't made the hole in the top big enough to get a candle in and light it without injuring myself, so we quickly whizzed to the shops to pick up some battery powered LED tealights, much easier!

And here is our pumpkin, and it's not bad for a first attempt.

We also roasted the seeds with sunflower oil, paprika and a bit of salt. They taste a little like popcorn, and it felt good not to waste them, although if I do them again I might use cinnamon and sugar to flavour them, I much prefer sweet snacks.

Hello?

Hello! I'm aware it's been a while since I last wrote a proper post; I'm now a little over three months from my PhD deadline, so I'm frantically working at that, while getting on with all the other usual life activities.

I haven't completely gone into hiding, and am still posting plenty of knitting and baking pictures on Instagram (new followers are always welcome), as well as enjoying weekends with family and friends. I'll also be getting involved in the Indie Design GAL over on Ravelry (all the information can be found here;* the fun starts on Thursday evening), which you may remember from last year, and will be posting about it here over the next six weeks.

Halloween cupcakes with bat and pumpkin sprinkles

Bonfire cupcakes for Bonfire Night

Chocolate orange cake for a charity raffle (we won a cake, but ate it before it could be photographed!)

Durham's rose window, reproduced in plastic blastic bottles for the Lumiere festival

Frankly enormous knitting. Again for the Lumiere festival, but I liked this one better unlit

The beginning's of my mystery Wyrt socks

We're also gearing up for Christmas in the Bird house. I've made a huge dent in my Christmas shopping this week as I realised it was making me a bit stressed. Many people who I'd planned to make things for now have shop-bought alternatives arranged to ease the pressure a little, and I can pass lots of presents on to friends I'm seeing over the next few weeks, thus saving on postage. I am very much looking forward to my son's first school Christmas - school shows, parties and dressing up; Christmas with small people is so much fun!

Festive knitting. These are for me

Hope everyone is enjoying Autumn. What have you all been up to recently?

*Note that you must be logged into Ravelry for this link to work.