Things have been going a bit slowly for Mum lately, but she has been trying out new things. One is a knitting machine that makes tubes and flat pieces. We're only at the tube stage at the moment. It's a bit tricky casting on, but once that's done you just have to turn the handle. So Mum's collected all her bits of wool that have the same thickness and off she's gone. She can't do it too long, though, as the constant turning of the handle makes your arm tired and the biceps hurt a bit. It's a sort of knitting "body building" machine even though it is all in plastic. The idea she's got is to make long sausages that can be stuffed with leftovers and used as cushions to put in the small of your back. You can also make scarves. Sometimes the machine drops stitches, but you can usually catch them. Here's a pic of the magic machine and some work in progress. Reviews of the knitting machine are mixed, but it's fun and makes for a bit of a change.
