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The World of Illusion Knitting

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PICKING UP THREADS

This was written in
2007
so is now very dated

We were still involved in many activities. Most of them happened to be on the Maths and Science side and not quite so many with craft groups. Maybe this was because our basic principles were so easy to understand and adapt that many groups were disseminating the information between themselves. Our experiences were many and varied, with people of all ages. Two that I particularly remember, from around this time, were with teachers.

I went alone to run a workshop at a course to be held at Madingley Hall in Cambridge. The hall is a former stately home where Edward VII, as Prince of Wales, lived during his time at Cambridge University. It now has lecture rooms and accommodation for residential courses and I had arranged to spend the night there before the workshop. I was due to meet the organisers late in the evening. The last few miles of the journey were along very dark and twisting roads and I didn’t really know where I was going. Eventually I saw signs – and a milk float, which was a little unexpected. I continued up the drive and parked outside. There were a few lights but there were no other signs of life. I ventured inside and the place was deserted. I began to wonder whether this was the right place. I wondered what to do next then realised there was a telephone on the wall with some message about picking it up if help was required. I picked it up and listened but there was nothing to be heard. Then, I heard, in the distance, a sound that could have been the clanking of chains. Should I stay or should I go? I’d been driving for four or five hours and didn’t really want to go anywhere else.

I stood waiting and wondering. The sounds were getting nearer and as they got closer they started sounding more like rattling bottles than clanking chains. Suddenly a large lady carrying a cardboard box full of empty bottles came into view, beaming at me, saying, “I’ve been expecting you. They’ve all gone down the pub. They’ll be back soon.”

She was right. Less than five minutes later the door burst open and the hall seemed to be full of people. In reality there were only three but they were all very excited and talking at once. When I managed to make sense of what they were saying I discovered that they had been in the road, with the milk float, rescuing frogs. I am not well-versed in the breeding habits of frogs but it seems that for a few nights each year thousands of frogs cross the road at that point to reach their breeding ground. Left to their own devices many of them get squashed on the road so the milk float and the ‘friends of the frogs’ turn out to transport them in safety. The three ladies had been helping out and had been given stickers to demonstrate their support. They wore them with the same pride and excitement as the smallest child getting a sticker for good work in school. It was yet another surreal experience.

The four of us spent what was left of the evening sitting in a huge lounge sampling the products from the ‘coffee machine’. It had the largest selection of coffee, hot chocolate, and combinations thereof, that I have ever seen. The payment mechanism had been turned off and we took full advantage.

Steve and I were invited back later, by the same organisation, to speak at another venue which was a remote Country Club. It proved to be very mundane by comparison.

24a. SECRET MESSAGES