Did any of you see the new episode of Death in Paradise last night? In it, Hayley Mills (that’s right – Hayley Mills!) was the unfortunate murder victim, stabbed to death with her own knitting needle. With apologies to the boardgame Clue (Cluedo over on this side of the pond), in which you guess the identity of the murderer not the victim, I couldn’t resist thinking “It was Hayley Mills, in the Bingo Room, with a Knitting Needle”. Hee hee.

Two things struck me right away. First, that was the most un-lethal knitting needle I’ve ever seen. Where did the prop people even find that? Second, I guess knitting has moved up in the eyes of mystery show writers. You see, in a tongue-in-cheek post I wrote some years ago I noted that the show Midsomer Murders, which is shot locally, usually features multiple members of a club or society getting killed off. Beware anyone who joins a club or has a hobby in Midsomer! Interestingly, there is no episode killing off knitters. I wrote:

All of these years of hobbyists meeting their premature end in ever creative fashion, and no knitting club. Perhaps, I thought, this is the true definition of a hobby. Not that an alien would adopt it in order to blend in, but that by taking it up you would meet an untimely death in Midsomer. If that is so, I am pleased to declare that knitting is not a hobby. Which means, of course, that it must be a spot of self-care.

I suppose to be completely accurate, in this episode the hobby was Bingo, not knitting, so I am pushing this metaphor. Still, we knitters are moving up there in the Murder mystery genre. Our beloved knitting needles have reached the same status as the rope, lead pipe, and candlestick! Hayley Mills, in the Bingo Room, with a Knitting Needle indeed!

Of course, I reckon that it’s still a spot of self-care.