Autumn birthdays and autumn knitting

Next week there are four birthdays in five days: son, daughter, brother and nephew.  I am running between the Post Office and the sorting office.  Birthday baking has begun.

Brownies and buns for a birthday

These are chocolate brownies and fairy cakes - fresh out of the oven and waiting for decoration.  The house smells good. 

C has asked for a giant mince pie for his birthday cake.  He loves mince pies more than anything else, but I refuse to make them out of season - they are just too Christmassy to have at any other time of year.  However, the birthday rules in our house state that the birthday person is allowed to have any cake they want.  So I have agreed to make a giant mince pie because I think birthday rules should outrank seasonality rules.

The other thing I am busy with at the moment is clearing a backlog of knitting projects.  I desperately want to wear this baktus scarf I started ages ago, with autumn in mind.  Last night I stayed up late so that I could get to the turning point and start decreasing. 

Turning point - yee-hah!

Half-way through the baktus scarf

Psychologically I am much keener to finish it now that I know I am over half-way though.
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Then I need to turn my attention to this baby kicking bag for a new neice who is due in February (very exciting, as she comes after three nephews in a row - I only have one neice at the moment).  I knittted kicking bags for my last two nephews (you can read the blog posts here and here) and they proved to be very useful and appreciated gifts.  A kicking bag is such a practical item for a newborn baby.

Baby kicking bag for a new neice

With this red bag I have finished the cabled cuff and now just need to sit down and go round and round in stocking stitch for a few weeks.  Time for some dedicated tv and film watching.  Perhaps accompanied by a slice of birthday cake.