More She Ball Competitors

As I haven't got much of mine to show you today I thought that i would show you three of the other Knitting Noras entries for the quirkiest thing that they could make with just one ball of Sirdar She Mohair. The top photo shows Deb's two entries. They bring back memories of my aunt who made almost everyone in the family a poodle toilet roll cover. I think this one is a bottle cover and the crinoline lady is the loo roll cover. The second photo was the first one to be finished and modelled. Eadaoin modelling at a Sunday Knit Club meeting much to the amusement of everyone there. The last photo is Sophie's necklace. She also made a hat. The competition is open to all Knitting Noras to vote and the results will be in a month or so. I will keep you posted and probably put photos of the other three entries on here tomorrow. You have already seen my gloves so there is no need to put them on here again.

I have managed to remake the sleeves of my chunky sweater and it is all stitched up now. I have to complete the knitting of the collar and stitch on the buttons and then it will be finished.

I haven't done a lot of knitting today as I was doing some washing and then watching Julie from next door trimming her trees with the help of her friend. They also cut down one branch from my tree at the front which only needed a couple more inches of growth and it would have been banging on Julie's telephone line so I asked if they would saw that branch off before it had chance to grow any taller. Now her trees have been pruned I think that she will find her lounge will be a lot warmer. It faces the same direction as mine and my room gets so hot in the summer. I think that her trees were blocking all of her sunlight.

Thanks Andy for telling me that you are back to your blogging. I am feeling very guilty as I have been very tardy lately at reading the blogs that I normally keep up with on a daily basis. I must set aside an hour or so this week and catch up with everyone's news.

Woodman spare that tree!

Oops - too late. At last the massive holly tree has been chopped down. My son still had to argue with the landlord from next door about chopping it down. He still only allowed my son to chop it to the height of 6 feet and it looks a bit ridiculous now but of course it will bush up again next year.

I cannot believe how much light has now flooded into this room and the kitchen. I had been trying every trick in the book to try to lighten this dark room and it was the tree blocking the light all the time. My lawn is flooded with sunshine today but I can't sit out for obvious reasons. The tree is so huge it will have to be chopped into pieces to even get it on the trailer to take it to the "green" recycling tip. The tree looks a lot larger spread all over the lawn. I really hadn't realised just how big it really was whilst it was in the sky.

My son had to enlist help with it and both he and his friend got prickled to death with a bad case of tree rash from the prickly holly leaves. There was a lot of ouching and grouching going on from the depths of the tree! I bet my ears will be burning tonight when he gets in the shower and sees the extent of the scratches. The next project is my Sumac tree at the bottom of the garden. I love the colour of the leaves in the autumn but it has got too top heavy and is rather taking over the garden. I want to get it trimmed down before it falls down and I lose it altogether. I am sure that my neighbours will be relieved when the height comes down in the same way that I was with the holly. They must be losing sunlight from their garden because of my tree although they haven't complained.

Buster is apparently in disgrace. He had a huge wee all over the place whilst they were at work so I think he has outstayed his welcome at my son's house. I said to bring him back home again but Ian said not just yet. I am just worried he has another water infection as he is prone to getting and when he has one he needs to wee a lot.

I went to the Kings Arms last night and although Sylvia and Kath were really kind to me, met me at the tram stop and took me back to the tram stop after the Knit Out I was still very nervy walking back home from my local tram stop. There was no one around and it was really eerie even though it wasn't late. I didn't see a soul whilst walking from the tram stop to home which made me very nervous. I think I will only go to the Knit Out if I can get a lift or a taxi home in future.

I am half way through the last 10 squares of the granny square shawl and will hopefully finish those off tonight. I started a pair of men's socks last night at the Knit Out for someones Christmas present. I will take the sock with me when I go to the hospital for my post op appointment tomorrow in case I have a long wait.

Landmark Day

Today marked a landmark in my progress since my operation. I managed to walk as far as Marks and Spencers in the village. I had to stop in the cafe for 10 mins with a Cappuccino when I got there as I felt a bit knackered. I could only buy 2 ready meals as I not supposed to be carrying anything but it was such a sense of achievement. My back was sore at the operation site but my legs worked fine ( a little wobbly but no sign of numbness) and I had no severe pain on walking which was something I wanted to test. I am in more discomfort since my walk but I am sure that it will pass. I feel very pleased with myself and the surgeon today. Now I can start to believe that the pain will be gone forever soon. The operation site was red hot when I got home and I had a very strange sensation of hot water trickling down inside my back so I hope all is well underneath the skin. Time will tell I guess.

I have not abandoned the crochet cardigan. I decided to leave it at the stage it is at until Vicky J can try it on. The beginning rows for quite a few sizes are exactly the same so I would only have to undo a few rows and increase a little more if the size isn't quite big enough. I don't want to carry on and have it pulling at the bust line. The yarn I am using is still working up a little on the small size but I don't want to go up a hook size as I think it would spoil the look of the crochet. The tension looks good on the hook size I am using now so I would rather go up a bust size and stay on the same hook.

I have started the Blue Curacao from the Amazing Lace Book whilst I am in limbo. The wool is Sublime Cashmere merino silk DK. I am using a 5.50mm hook. I think Doris has used more of an aran thickness but it is so difficult to tell with the US patterns exactly what US 4 thickness is compared to UK yarns. It seems to be mid way between DK and Aran but I really prefer the DK for a shawl such as this. Many Ravellers seem to have made it with finer yarn and added an extra set of pineapples to get the right length. The shawl will be blocked and that will also make a difference to it's finished size. I am still on the first ball but of course I will get less and less rows per ball as the shawl progresses. I guess I will just finish off with as many completed pineapple sets as I can with amount of wool that Vicky provided.

I accosted the landlord of the house next door today and told him I was considering cutting down his holly tree as he was obviously not going to make any effort to do anything with it. I had discussed it with him last year and he hasn't done anything at all and has no plans to do anything. It is supposed to be a holly bush but it has been neglected by him and years of tenants and is now a huge towering tree. It sways alarmingly in the winds very close to my roof but more than that it is affecting the signal to my Sky dish. He looked rather startled and said I could trim it and cut a wee bit off the top. I told him not to be ridiculous as the tree was higher than both houses. I said it is going down to at least half size or down altogether. He finally agreed to half way when I said I would sue him if it blew down onto my roof and did any damage. The whole garden next door is like an overgrown jungle so how can he possible say that the tree is an asset to the garden? It's not as if the tree ever has any berries. All it ever does is creak alarmingly and shed loads of prickly leaves onto my garden everytime there is a breath of wind. Plus my poor lawn hardly sees the light of the sun in certain areas because of it's height. Timber! Oops sorry the chain saw slipped - I will have to buy you a new small holly bush as a replacement. I would, if I dared, tell the tree guy to just chop the whole thing down. Maybe he will discover some ghastly disease which means it is a danger to everyone. I can only hope.

I hope that my little walk today will ensure another good night's sleep tonight. At the moment I feel more enlivened by the fresh air but hopefully by bedtime the walk will have tired me out sufficiently so I will sleep.