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German Commuter Knits Four-Foot-Long Scarf Detailing Rail Delays

All images via @sara_webber

German commuter and knitter Claudia Weber travels regularly from her town Moosburg in the Bavarian countryside to Munich. Due to track repairs which began last year, her train commute was replaced with a bus service that would often be delayed for up to 30 minutes or longer. Weber decided to start detailing her daily travel troubles by translating the delays into a wool scarf. Each evening after she returned home she would add two new rows to her textile work— gray for any delay under five minutes, pink for when she had to wait up to 30 minutes, and bright red for a delay that lasted more than a half hour or was in both directions.

She titled her four-foot-long finished work “Bahn-Verspätungsschal,” or “rail delay scarf,” which went viral after it was posted by her daughter Sara on Twitter. After becoming a hit, she decided to auction it off on eBay to raise money for Bahnhofs Mission, a charity that provides assistance at train stations. The scarf sold to an undisclosed buyer for 7,550 euros or $8,650. Although Weber remains a loyal commuter on the Munich-Moosburg train, this year she has again started a new scarf. (via The New York Times)