This is part 5 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.

(For mobile users: descriptions are shown below the gallery. Gallery may take a moment to load)

41. Second Wave. We all become pretty familiar with seeing graphs showing the latest figures for cases and deaths in different countries. Even before we saw numbers come down and restrictions easing there was concern about a second wave of cases which unfortunately has happened in many places, often even worse that the first.

42. Black Lives Matters. Whilst I have tried to keep other local or global events separate from this project, the Black Lives Matter movement became so entwined with everything that was happening that it just didn’t feel right to exclude this.

43. Air Bridges. With travel restrictions in place across the globe, there were at different times, safe or lower risk routes opened up between certain countries to allow for travellers. These were called air bridges. In some cases though, those that did travel, then became stuck in that country when travel restrictions were changed with little or no notice.

44. Shielding. Those with particular underlying health conditions were identified early during the pandemic as more at risk and were classed as “shielding”. Advice for this group regarding restrictions was stricter to provide more protection against the virus. They are also to receive the vaccine earlier during the roll out.

45. Angels. This suggestion was made to remember and honour those who we have lost during the pandemic. The numbers continue to increase across the globe and many more will be remembered by this particular square. Those who lost family or friends often never had the opportunity to say goodbye, couldn’t have a funeral and couldn’t be with others to be comforted as they mourned.

46. Lost Stock Campaign. Retail was one of many industries badly hit during the pandemic and with large orders cancelled with little warning, many countries that relied on these contracts for their businesses and workers were hit hard. Lost Stock was set up by volunteers and for £35 you could buy a box of clothes which had been made for one of these cancelled contracts and the money would go to the workers in Bangladesh who were in desperate need of financial aid. The image here is the Bangladesh flag and the lock stock logo.

47. Bubbles. Bubbles are groups of households that could meet up during certain levels of restrictions allowing for more social interaction whilst maintaining some limitations in order to reduce risk of the virus spreading from household to household.

48. Formal Fridays. With many stuck at home and no need to dress up or wear their usual wardrobe, pyjamas or leggings and joggers became the unofficial dress code for all. But with that came a real desire to get dressed up every now and then, just for the sake of it. As well as videos of people getting into their fanciest outfit to take the bins out or getting fully made up to film a Tik Tok, there were trends such as Formal Friday where people would put on formal wear and post photos and videos on Friday.