have towel rail, will travel

It may not quite be the silliest thing I've ever had to take onto a bus (that would be the brand new standard lamp and lampshade combo, where maybe I didn't do myself any favours by wearing the shade as a hat)but I have to say there are few things more likely to get you stared at than carting a towel rail about with you. Now, let me point out that this isn't a common or garden towel rail. No, Mr Caught Knitting would have me believe that it is a family heirloom. Apparently, it is well over 70 years old, used to be bright blue and have plaster of paris mouldings on it. "Actually, it was a very ugly blue, the sort of colour that public lavatories used to be, so it wasn't really a bright blue, it was an ugly blue.*" But here it is in its present incarnation, posing (on Friday) against the elegant backdrop of Stop J, Emmanuel Street, Cambridge.

We (that is to say, the towel rail and I) were en route to Cottenham for this year's Textiles in Focus event, as Liz had invited me to sell some of my wares alongside her fabulous yarns, bags, scarves and patterns. Sue (who is, alas, blogless) was also there, with her fabulous "Captain Jack Sparrow Scarf" --red, greys and soft plum, interspersed with glass and wooden beads, trimmed with wild curly tails--which I forgot to photograph, grr. In fact, having immortalised the towel rail, I promptly forgot that I had a camera with me. Which is a scandal, as Liz's stall looked incredibly inviting, as did Gill's Woolly Workshop (which was next to it) and 21st Century Yarns' booth (opposite it). We had a wonderful time: the towel rail sat very nicely on top of the stall, displaying scarves for all to see, and I sat behind the stall, knitting, crocheting and selling things to people and answering a stream of enquiries about how I'd made the scarves/pots etc. Oddly, I also spent some time buying things: I'm hoping that this Wednesday will be sunny enough for you to get pictures of my loot.

Today, of course, would have been perfect for photographing my swag, but I had to go to work. I was given a lift though, which meant that I got to cross The Backs, where I captured this icy scene as I walked towards Trinity Bridge:

Finally, if you've read yesterday evening's post about last Sunday's glorious sunset, here's the difference a week makes: same sky, same place, same time of day, one week closer to summer...

*Aha, it seems that all those audio typing lessons I took many moons ago were not worthless, after all. I can now capture Mr CK, famous literature lecturer, verbatim!