Tree roots and knitting don’t mix

A few days ago, I decided to do a blogpost to follow-up on the Purl Cable Cast-On I was writing about last time. However, that was before I met up with a pixie! 

Well, it was either a pixie or a tree root, but whichever it was I lost my footing and came down hard on my right hand which resulted in this…

Ouch! Yes – that’s a broken bone in my right hand plus several bruised finger joints & a whole lot of swelling to add to the fun. 

It came about because I went looking for a pixie house we saw last year. We had decided to walk the length of the Gyllenhielm Trail, a long-distance Swedish walking route which extends for about 25km or so from Eskilstuna to the lake-side harbour in Sundbyholm.

​It’s a beautiful trail traversing glaciated landscapes, past ancient burial mounds and through wooded areas with stands of silver birch, alder and pine.
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Part of the route goes over some hills near where we live and it was there that we spotted a wonderful pointy stone which looked just like a pixie house. There was a gap at the front which which would be perfect for a small wooden door, and the moss growing on the top resembled the grass-covered rooftops you can still see on country cottages throughout Sweden.

So I decided to go back and find it again, but this time I also noticed some smaller moss-covered stones just behind. They almost looked like they were set either side of a curving street through a little pixie village. It was quite delightful. 

I didn’t see any smoke curling from the chimneys but it was a hot Midsummers day so I suppose they were all out playing in the woods. So perhaps it was one of them playing by my feet who tripped me up as I headed back, or perhaps it was an exposed tree root. Whichever it was the net result was the same… a broken bone and a very sore hand.

Still I need to count my blessings. The treatment these days is to do hand exercises and try to gradually build up activities over about 12 weeks until the muscles pull everything back into line. No plaster casts these days! Phew! 

However, last night I only managed to knit about 130 stitches in the whole evening. I was feeling quite pleased with myself for a while until I realised that the world’s fastest knitters can do that in about a minute! 

Never mind, I’m hoping I’ll be back to full knitting strength before too long. Until then, here’s another photo taken in our local woods. This time of some wonderful bracket fungi which looked just like a couple of digestive biscuits fresh from the oven!

Until next time – safe walking everyone!

Moira

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Keywords: #Pixies, walking, Postcards from Sweden