I thought the smell of trolls was one of those weird mysteries which I needed to keep to myself - how strange that I am not alone in this memory And my best troll story would have taken place in about 1965 when having (illegally ?) taken my favourite troll to school I lost it on the way home. I think I was upset rather than distraught but was utterly thrilled to discover it the next afternoon standing on the traffic light button of the crossing to Finchley Road station awaiting my return.

But I suspect Fair Isle and this are rather different and I'm very grateful to you for the tip on card bobbins .

What a treat to see all that. I must go downstairs and stare hard at my growing wool collections so as to stop myself wanting more. Well done on the "O". I spent forever getting the tension right on my 'blank' and have now been promoted to an "oops we do seem to need another" "E" which I'm about to start. I'm sure they got a few more knitters after your post about it - well at least one ! Unfortunately doing them is not even reducing my stash as it turned out I had no double knitting in stock, so I had to buy more !

I loved it too and have still got my Puffin copy - it has the most wonderful illustrations by Shirley Hughes

I wonder if the Poetry Society will get a rush of new volunteers this weekend - they've just acquired me and I mentioned your mention of them. The only comfort about not living in Portland and or going to the Sock Summit is I always feel in summer there is less of a compulsion to knit. Neglected knitting replaced by neglected gardening perhaps ?

yes please -do disturb that cat as soon as possible..all best wishes and it's raining in Leeds too..good reading weather though

Oh what a treat to see - and did the wrens get their brood reared before the eviction ?

Oh yes please - I always love reading her interviews .

After a small glance at everyone else’s comments when there were only 12 of them I decided to write this off line as suspect there may be quite a lot of repetition.which could be inhibiting to what I want to say - so here goes 1) Found you through reading Susan Hill’s Blog 2) Read you now as an integral part of what I do every day, like check email,open post and answer phone – started because I found your writing sympathetic and appealing. 3) Yes, to a large extent – providing the books are already lying within my own interests which they usually are. 4) I’ve had to really strain my brain around this one – the only thing I could come up with was slight disturbance when you temporarily changed your picture from the seasonal window view ! 5) Stimulating, sympathetic and absorbing I only read a few blogs regularly – those I do like I am very loyal to – (may be a way of not doing other things of course ). I try out quite a few and there has to be a quality of sympathy I think between blogger and reader. It can be a bit like having an imaginary friend but given the amount of responding you do Lynne , I’ve decided that you’re more like a penpal !

This is rather an out of context post but I wasn't sure if I posted it where it should be whether anyone would see it. I wanted to recommend reading a very interesting discussion taking place about Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger. It's on Alison Bechdel's blog at http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/the-little-stranger#comments and airs a range of fascinating analysis about the meaning of the narrative - probably better for those who've read the book already. Made me want to reread it having been slightly disappointed by the plot, the first time round.

Me too, please -just once this time !

Oops so sorry did not mean to attempt double (and now triple !) entry - please delete all but one..

Oh yes please, me too, they look and sound wonderful.

Ooh yes please, me too, they look and sound wonderful

I am posting a couple of weeks later, as I emerge slowly from the total absorption which "The Children's Book" gave me. The experience reminded me of reading as a child with the same reluctance to step back from the narrative and the sensation of being within the plot. I even enjoyed all the "public service information" bits which have in the past put me off some portions of A S Byatt's other book. Long as it was I did not want it to end; I also feel confident that I will read it again and will find more in a second reading. Reading an account of a book as rapturous as your description of it Lynne, tends to make me nervous that I might find the book a disappointment but not this time.

What an interesting idea that we are so significantly shaped by the books which were particularly vital to us as children. Mine fall into two categories- firstly the ones I lived in, in the sense of entering into them as myself, an extra character - with the book characters as my friends. Those which come to mind for me are the "Swallows and Amazons" series , "My Family and Other Animals" and all of the Chalet School Books. The second category are those which still inhabit my head as a kind of aesthetic..."A Secret Garden", "A Little Princess" , "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge, and "Children of Green Knowe" books by Lucy M Boston are the most vivid of these. They have left me with an enduring love of walled gardens, moonlight, birds and geraniums, and finding in addition , I've moved from London to Yorkshire. Though I don't really think that the latter is necessarily the result of repeated readings of "A Secret Garden" !

Aha- was wondering where "Wolf Hall' had disappeared to on this blog, my copy went on holiday to Ithaka where it stayed as the special treat to be looked forward to, it then became rather uncompelling on a very long and delayed journey home, and this week has turned into a bit of a trial, but I have persevered and am starting to enjoy it having come to terms with some kind of grammatical construction which means that I often have to think very carefully about whose view we are seeing events from. This perseverance is paying off but it certainly is not a skipfest so I'm being made to amend my usual casual, sloppy reading approach. And I'm not allowed to take up the AS Byatt or the Sarah Waters until I have discharged my duty to Hilary Mantel. Must admit to none of these problems with "Beyond Black".

Sounds irresistable- do please add me to the draw and hope your convalescence is going well.

So glad to see that the surgery went well and wanted to add my voice to the general admiration of Bookhound's illustrations.

My very best wishes for a quick recovery - and had a good cackle about the "planned engineering works" !

It's just as if Rocky chose all of us in his infernal number/mouse crunching machine - and without waiting in for the post person.

Thank you, it was so easy to download, the file was only 1mg- now how am I going to find reading off my laptop ?! Interesting to find out.

Me too, please -I've loved her earlier books and this one sounds even better.

I've been eyeing this one in the bookshops for a while - so please count me in.

Whereas I have only ever knitted socks with a circular needle, using the "Magic loop" technique which I learnt off the internet. I was at a little craft market in Dublin when I saw someone selling and knitting self patterning sock wool in this way. I knew I had to try it and also realised that a verbal explanation was not going to enable me to use the circular needle in this way. However following it from the web was very straightforward. And now I'm utterly hooked , to the neglect of all other knitting projects. And with a circular needle , the project can be shoved in a bag with little fear of dropping stitches unlike DPNs which I'd used in the past for knitting sleeves and which always drove me mad with stitch dropping. Video is to be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtBSmxGomPk