Woodland Shawl finished

I managed to work out the edging for the Woodland shawl from the Interweave Crochet Fall 08 magazine. I am not sure that is exactly true to the pattern but it looks OK to me on the shawl. As usual I did it my way!

I couldn't resist draping the shawl on my Staghorn Sumac tree which is particularly lovely at this time of year. The shawl colours remind me so much of this tree. When one of our wool shops (plus my mum's home) had to be demolished to make way for an Asda I took a cutting from the tree that was in the back yard garden and had been so much a part of my growing up years.

My mother had got the original cutting for that tree from huge trees that we all loved when we lived, when I was a young child, for a few months in North Wales with my aunt. My aunt owned a house called Glasfryn in Llanfair Talhaiarn and Staghorn Sumacs lined the top of the driveway. My brother has just revisited the house as he was attending a wedding nearby but it is looking shabby these days with no trees so I am glad that my mother, and later me, preserved an offshoot of one of them. Quite how they came to be in North Wales I am not sure as according the the Internet they are native trees of Canada. Perhaps there is a story to be told somewhere about their import to Wales.

As a child I loved living in Llanfair Talhaearn, a small village in the country but our thoughts of settling there permanently didn't work out as jobs were hard to get for my father and he finished up working in Abergele TB Sanatorium in the laundry, which he hated, and so we decided to return home to Royton and life in a very small town once again. As a child I didn't see the limitations of two buses per day to Abergele and the miles of travel for my brother to get to grammar school. I just remember running wild through the hay, oat and barley fields and riding on the huge farm cart horses with my dog (well my aunt's Retriever dog) Tinker by my side. Walking for miles to find the salmon weir and watching the fishermen catching the leaping fish. I had my first bite from a supposedly tame pet ferret during this time. I spent a few months in a totally welsh speaking junior school and managed to come away with only two words of Welsh! The village didn't have electricity at the time and I can remember being popular with the young children as we had a TV and electric light powered by an old temperamental generator in the shed. The cooking was done on an old Aga in the kitchen and in the winter no-one strayed far from there as the rest of the house was really cold.

Both of my knitting groups are going to Knitty Gritty Goes Large today at Touchstones in Rochdale and the Knitting Noras knitted garden will be on display along with some scarves that Rachael from the Kings Arms knitters has made for the statues. It is a day for finding out about knit, crochet, felting and dyeing. I was thinking about going but when I got up this morning I needed to be close to the smallest room in the house. I don't feel ill so perhaps it's something that I ate yesterday that has given me this upset tummy. Either way I think it's wisest to stay home until the feeling passes.

I will just settle down in my Barbie outfit (bright pink fleecy top with grey trousers trimmed with pink) and do some crocheting. The sun is shining even though it is cold and Mr/Mrs Squirrel has just come to the window to remind me that I haven't put the nuts out yet!