This is part 1 of the Happy Barnet Covid Crochet Blanket. Made to capture and remember some of the many key events and themes of this year. You can learn more about my project on my main blog post where you will also see links to the other sections of the blanket and the final completed blanket.

I hope you enjoy looking through the photos below and learning more about my project. The blanket will be donated to Edinburgh Museums and will be part of their Covid Collection.

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1. Covid-19, the virus itself and the villain of the piece. This is the image we all got used to seeing on news reports and social media graphics.

2. Soap and bubbles. Whilst advice did develop throughout the months as we learnt what to do and not to do, one of the first pieces of advice was to wash our hands and it wasn’t just to wash them but to relearn how to wash them properly. Suddenly everyone was talking about the 20 seconds needed under hot soapy water, the different ways you needed to rub your hands together to be sure you’d cleaned every bit and that one way to make sure you’d washed them long enough was to sing Happy Birthday, twice. Extra hand soap and bottles of hand sanitiser were bought up everywhere and were in everyone’s handbags, pockets, cars and office drawers.

3. Globe. In December 2019, virus seemed confined to China but at the time I write, seven months later, 188 countries and territories have experienced cased of Covid-19, with more than an estimated 13 million people infected, and a global death toll of more than 578,000. Reading updates each day throughout the early months of the year you could feel the virus getting closer and closer as new countries started to report cases and then those cases would increase and their governments would respond with lockdowns whilst we still had zero reported cases and were carrying on as normal. Then of course we started to see our own cases, first somewhere in the UK, then Scotland, then in my home town and then a friend of a friend, this time whilst other countries watched on at what action we took and what happened for us.

4. Toilet Roll. The square that started it all! As it became more and more obvious that the patterns other countries experiencing would repeat for us, which would mean disruption to supply chains, lockdowns and limited access to goods and services, panic-buying started. I was first aware of toilet roll shortages being reported in Australia and before you knew it, people were bulk buying loo roll here. Aisles in the supermarket were wiped out, a limit was set in some shops on how many you could buy at a time and people were passing on messages to friends and family when they found a place with stock in store. Along with toilet roll and hand sanitiser, other products quick to fly off the shelves during this time were pasta, flour, cleaning products, thermometers and anything anti-bacterial.

5. Lockdown. Watching another country go in to lockdown was bizarre, part of you couldn’t imagine it happening where you lived but the logical side of your brain knew it was increasingly likely. Italians who were one of the first in Europe to put a lockdown in place after experiencing a particularly high number of cases compared to other European countries, shared posts on social media, telling other countries to prepare. There were videos of neighbourhoods leaning out of windows signing and police driving round the streets ensuring everyone was staying home. The lockdown in the UK was never as extreme as some other countries but none the less, lockdown officially started on 23rd March. Initially for a three week period but later developed into a longer 5 stage plan which then splintered into different plans for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. As things started to open back up after lockdown, new conditions on who you could meet with and how/where were detailed for each phase/level.

6. Sunshine. With lockdown in the UK covering the spring and summer months, there was a period of incredible sunshine which brought both enjoyment and challenges with it. For those with gardens, household BBQs, garden games and large paddling pools and camping in your own garden become commonplace. However it also meant everyone wanted to be out and to enjoy the various parks, gardens and outdoor life which meant they became busy and made it impossible to maintain social distancing. Additionally as lockdown restrictions began to lift, many travelled to tourist spots, putting huge pressure on local police forces to keep the public safe.

7. Stay Home. As well as during lockdown, general advice was to stay home with the first official government slogan being: “Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives” which was later replaced by “stay alert, control the virus, save lives” and restrictions lifted.

8. Social Distancing. Another well known phrase has been social distancing. Whilst countries may have varied on whether it should be for 1 or 2 metres (3 or 6 feet), advice across many countries was to practice social distancing, the act of staying apart from other individuals to reduce the risk of spreading the virus through contact or water droplets eg from a cough.

9. Zoom. With everyone at home, many isolating, working from home for the first time or experiencing lockdown, new ways of communicating effectively were found and one of the most popular tools for doing this was Zoom. Zoom allowed large groups to connect online on a laptop or via an app for video chats and screen-sharing. Whilst other tools such as Microsoft Teams were also widely used, it was Zoom that experienced the highest growth of 345% in it’s customer base with over 260k users. The tool was used not just for work but for friends and family to keep in touch with online games nights and catch ups.

10. Daily Briefings. In the UK, everyday at 5pm, there was a daily briefing given either by the Prime Minister or a senior government minister with updates on new cases, policies, restrictions and changes. These ran each day at 5pm from 16th March to the 23rd of June. Following that date, the briefings were ad hoc and as required.