The Happy Barnet 2020 Lockdown Project
Links to photos and descriptions:
(scroll down to see final blanket)
August 2020
It’s fair to say 2020 has been an unusual year, to say the least. At times it’s felt like the whole year has been just a few days and at other times it feels like it’s lasted forever. So much as happened and each week, sometimes each day, new unprecedented* incidents have occurred, so much so it’s been hard to keep track. We’ve all been affected one way or another and we’ve all found our different ways to try and stay safe and stay sane!
For me, I’ve been at home, alone, since the 12th March and it’s now early August. I worked from home initially but have been on furlough for the majority of time. I’ve squeezed in one or two projects during this time, mask making, mask adaptor making, online courses and trying out new crafts but there’s one project in particular that really is my official 2020 Lockdown Project; my Covid Crochet Blanket.
It started off when I spotted someone had crocheted a toilet roll following the mass panic-buying of loo rolls across the globe. I thought it looked hilarious and shared it with the Happy Barnet Craft Group. We had a laugh but also talked about making a memory blanket and what else you could make….and then I just started!
I made the first square and it looked really good so I made another and another and another. More ideas came to me as things started picking up pace and more and more changes happened around us. I also received lots of great ideas from social media as I began to share photos of my squares.
During the summer, Edinburgh Museum’s put a call out for donations to what will be their Covid-19 Contemporary Collection and I submitted some photos. I’m excited to share that they are interested in my project and we are keeping in touch whilst I continue to work on it.
The links here take you to individual blog posts showing photos of the different sections of the blanket. Currently the squares are not in a particularity order but that may change as I get to the point of joining them together. Whilst many of the squares are fun and represent ways we kept our spirits up, others represent key moments in this year and can be somewhat emotional.
I hope you find the piece both enlightening and memorable and if you have any ideas for more squares, I’d love to hear from you in the comments or at hello@happybarnet.com
*surely a contestant for word of the year
Update: February 2021
My blanket is one of 15 Covid related items featured in The Guardian article: Vaccine vials and a virtual hug: a history of coronavirus in 15 objects
Update: April 2021
It’s finished! This project has been quite a journey, there’s been parts that have made me laugh, like the toilet roll and Tiger King, others that have been tough to make emotionally like the Black Lives Matter square and the Isolation image and others where the meaning has deepened over time like Captain Tom’s medals which had been a celebration of his achievement when I made it but after his passing also became a tribute to his memory. Similarly as I lost my own granny to Covid, the Angel square has become much more emotional for me to look at. There’s been times I’ve had to put the blanket away as I was struggling myself with the challenges of living through a pandemic but I am so pleased I made this. It may have started as a joke to make a crochet toilet roll but it’s something I’m incredibly proud of now and have been overwhelmed with the feedback from others who have seen photos of the various squares as I’ve been making them. Placement of the squares is pretty much random but I am quite pleased that the way it’s turned out it starts with the virus and ends with the vaccine. I can only hope that will be true of the pandemic itself as well. Finally I’d like to thank Edinburgh Museums who are accepting this blanket as a donation for the Covid Collection.
All the books we swapped and our guest author Allison Meldrum at the Secret Book Swap in Davidson’s Mains