Nancy Charley draws parallels between knitting and the creation of a human life in her delicate poem. Illustration by Rupert Smissen.

You knit me together, Fair Isle in mind,
with pleasing colours in an intricate design
on a circular needle seamlessly
from a fit-for-any-purpose pattern.

But it seems you may have been distracted
by daydreams, the TV or difficult decisions
so purled instead of knit, wove in the wrong wool
and dropped the occasional stitch.

Nor it seems were you inclined to unravel, re-knit,
pick up the lost loops or correct the tension.
I guess you knew that once I was cast off
such faults would characterise me.

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