And in another instalment of our series, "Tales From the Motorway", PipneyJane knits whilst driving...

On my drive home this afternoon, I got to knit one-and-a-half rounds of my latest sock. To say I wa sitting in stop-start traffic, would be doing stop-start traffic a disservice. It was more like "stop-stop traffic". There was an accident on the M4 - a four car shunt (what a surprise?). It can't have occurred that much ahead of me; I was a mile away doing 70mph when I hit slam-on-your-brakes traffic and had to stop dead.

Fortunately, I always leave a lot of room between me and the car ahead. I'm a practitioner of the two-second-rule (i.e. when the car in front passes a stationary point, chant "Only a fool breaks the two second rule". If you are still chanting when you go past that point yourself, then you're driving too close).

I was more worried about the Porsche behind me, which was rapidly gaining. Anxiously, I flipped on the hazard lights and watched in the rear-view mirror as the driver reacted. Let's just say, I saw the whites of his eyes but our two cars didn't kiss.

We crawled along. We stopped. At one point, I switched off the engine, only to have to restarted it 20 seconds later to crawl along another 10 feet. Invoking Murphy's Law of Knitting on the Move*, I dug my knitting purse out of my hand bag and started work on DH's latest sock.


It worked a treat. I knitted 10 stitches before the car in front moved off. Put the sock down on the passenger seat. 15 feet later I was stationery again. Picked the sock up. Knitted 5 more stitches. The car in front moved again. Held the sock carefully in one hand and drove the next 10 feet using the other to hold the steering wheel. Stopped again. Knitted another 7 stitches before the car in front moved again. Put the sock in my lap and then decided it was safer on the passenger seat. Drove 15 feet. Stopped again. Knitted for 2 stitches. Started moving again. Rinse and repeat for about 200 yards.

One hundred stitches later, I got passed the accident to the clear road beyond.

- Pam (Yet another reason I carry some knitting with me everywhere)



*Murphy's Law of Knitting on the Move: just as you get settled down to knit, you'll reach your stop. This is a variant on Murphy's Law of Knitting in Waiting Rooms, which states that you will just get to a complicated bit where everything is precarious and your name will be called for your appointment. In both cases, you have to shove everything back into your bag and rush off or risk losing out.