Rib-stitch
Judy Darley
September 29th, 2025
It’s only a glove, dropped into the silt at the side of the road. A rib-stitch knitted glove in a shade of mustard that stings Nel’s eyes.
The stained yarn punches memories awake.
Of frozen winter days when Nel’s brother’s hand-me-down knits clung too thin to stop her fingers turning numb.
Of when he taught her to jump with arms flapping for warmth and she’d felt herself fly with sparrows.
Of before she knitted gloves to welcome her brother and his damaged body home from the desert, realizing her error too late and claiming she’d knitted two so he’d always have a spare.
Nel pushes her cold hands deeper into jacket pockets, She hurries to reach her brother’s rehabilitation center before the winds change direction again.
Judy Darley is a writer living on England’s North Somerset coast. She is the author of short fiction collections
'The Stairs are a Snowcapped Mountain' (Reflex Press),
'Sky Light Rain' (Valley Press) and 'Remember Me to the Bees' (Tangent Books). Her words have been shared on BBC radio, aboard boats and on coastal paths, as well as in museums, caves and a deconsecrated church. Judy is currently working on a hybrid memoir beast she's not sure how to describe. Find Judy at
@judydarley.bsky.social
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