The Cloud Knitter

00:00Settle in

Hi there. Have you found the cool side of the pillow? [pause] Good. Tonight's story is about a girl called Juno, and a scarf that was much too long, and someone very fluffy who lives high up above the rooftops, where the clouds are made.

00:28Much too long

Juno's grandpa was coming to stay for winter, and Juno wanted to make him a present. Not a drawing. He had lots of drawings. She wanted to knit him a scarf. A long red scarf, long enough to go round his neck twice and still hang down to his knees. [pause] Her mum showed her how. In, around, through, and off. That's one stitch. Juno did one. Then another. Then another. It was slow. Her fingers felt like sausages. After a whole row, the scarf was as long as a matchbox, and about as wide. [pause] Juno held it up next to Grandpa's photo on the fridge. Then she looked at how tall Grandpa was. Then she looked at the matchbox. "It'll take forever," she said. And she pushed the needles into the ball of red wool and put it under her bed, where she wouldn't have to see it.

01:32Something at the window

That night, Juno couldn't sleep. She kept thinking about the scarf under her bed, sulking in the dark. [pause] Then she heard a sound at the window. Click, click. Click, click. It wasn't rain. It was too neat for rain. Juno got up, pulled back the curtain, and there, sitting on the windowsill, was a sheep. [pause] A small, round, very woolly sheep, with a pair of silver knitting needles, and a long, long thread of white wool going up, up, up into the sky. "Oh good, you're awake," said the sheep. "Could you hold this end for a moment? It keeps blowing about."

02:23The sheep on the cloud

Juno held the end of the wool. It was soft and cool, like holding a little bit of fog. The sheep gave a tug, and the wool gave a tug, and before Juno quite knew what was happening, they were both floating up, past the chimney, past the tallest tree, past the church bell, until they landed, very gently, on a cloud. [pause] It was a small cloud, not much bigger than her bed. It was bouncy. And it wasn't finished. One whole side of it was just loose wool, hanging down over the town. "I'm Fen," said the sheep. "I knit the clouds. This one is for tomorrow morning. It needs to be done by sunrise."

03:13How big is the sky?

Juno looked out across the night. There were clouds everywhere. Small round ones, long thin ones, great big ones piled up like mashed potato. [pause] "Did you knit all of these?" she whispered. "Me, and my sisters, and my aunties, and my grandma," said Fen. "We've been doing it for a very long time." Juno thought about her scarf, the size of a matchbox. "But the sky is so big," she said. "Doesn't it feel like it'll take forever?" [pause] Fen stopped knitting and looked at her with one eye. "I've never knitted a sky," she said. "I couldn't. Nobody could. I don't even knit clouds." "But you just said—" "I knit a stitch," said Fen. "Watch."

04:11One stitch

Fen held up her silver needles. In, [pause] around, [pause] through, [pause] and off. "There," she said. "One stitch. That's all I'm doing right now. Not the cloud. Not the sky. Just this one." And she did another. In, around, through, and off. "And now I'm doing this one." [pause] Juno watched. Fen didn't hurry. She didn't look up at all the clouds still to do. She just looked at the stitch in front of her, and when it was finished, she looked at the next one. And slowly, so slowly you'd never notice it happening, the loose side of the cloud got shorter, and the bouncy part got bigger. "Would you like a go?" said Fen. And she gave Juno a second pair of needles, small ones, just the right size.

05:11Juno knits a cloud

Juno's fingers still felt like sausages. Her first stitch was lumpy. "That one's lumpy," she said. "Clouds are lumpy," said Fen. "That's what makes them clouds." [pause] So Juno did another. In, around, through, and off. She didn't look at the sky. She looked at the stitch. Then the next stitch. Then the next. Once, a stitch slipped right off her needle and started to unravel, and Juno said, "Oh no, I've ruined it." Fen leaned over, hooked it back on with the tip of her needle, and said, "Dropped stitches happen. You just pick them up." [pause] Then the next stitch. Fen hummed a low, woolly kind of song, and the stars came out one by one, and Juno knitted, and knitted, and after a while she forgot to count, and after a longer while she forgot to worry. [pause] When she finally looked up, she gasped. The loose wool was gone. The cloud was finished, round and soft, and somewhere in it, if you knew where to look, there was a little lumpy patch that was hers.

06:31Back to bed

The sky in the east was turning pale. "Time to go," said Fen. She gave the wool a gentle tug, and down they floated, past the church bell, past the tallest tree, past the chimney, to Juno's windowsill. "Thank you for helping," said Fen. "Will you keep going?" Juno thought about the red scarf under her bed. "One stitch?" she said. "One stitch," said Fen. "And then the next one." [pause] And then the sheep was gone, and the white wool was gone, and only the tiniest wisp of it was left on the windowsill.

Juno climbed back into bed. She could feel the needles still in her fingers, in, around, through, and off. [pause] She didn't think about the whole scarf. She thought about one stitch. In, [pause] around, [pause] through, [pause] off. And another. In, [pause] around, [pause] through, [pause] off. [pause] One stitch. [pause] Two stitches. [pause] Three. [pause] Her eyes got heavy. Her fingers got slow. Outside, above the rooftops, a new little cloud floated over the town, waiting for the morning. [pause] Goodnight, Juno. Goodnight, Fen. [pause] And goodnight to you. Tomorrow, if you look up, you might spot a little lumpy cloud. [pause] Sleep well.