Hats off to the 'red tape' knitters

Brown Aran wool it was, with a complicated cable pattern. Took me months. A real labour of love.

That was back in the early days of our marriage, when one does these foolish things.

He admired it politely, wore it once, and stowed it carefully at the back of his wardrobe. It stayed there, unworn, for at least a decade, even moving house with us when we came back down south from the Peak District.

Eventually, I had to admit that it would have remained tucked away there for all eternity, appreciated in principle by its recipient but never fitting in any of the right places, and I plucked up the courage to chuck it out.

Despite the current craze for all things handmade and Kirstie Allsopp, I won’t be tangling with a pair of needles again.

So hats off (woolly ones, naturally) to those crafty campaigners who knitted yards of ‘red tape’ in the Guildhall Square at the weekend to protest about the loss of disabled parking spaces.

In PR terms, the Salisbury Vision team dropped several stitches when it came up with its original refurbishment plans for the market area without properly taking account of disabled people’s concerns.

It’s been trying its hardest to pick them up again ever since.

Let’s hope a mutually acceptable solution can be found. Otherwise, I fear that just like that wretched Aran sweater, this protest could linger on and on.

And nobody wants the whole scheme to unravel.

PS. When I told my husband what I was writing about, he very kindly pointed out that the jumper I made him would have stretched round all the trees in the Market Place.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here