This is part 6, the FINAL part 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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49. Masks. I had originally made a square for masks and PPE together but as time went on it became clear these were two very different issues so I added a separate square just for face masks. Initially it took a while for medical advice to determine whether face masks would be beneficial or not and then for individual governments to put in place mandates for people to wear them. Then of course there was the issue of getting masks for everyone, everywhere fast enough! As well as manufacturers going in to overdrive to make them en masse, many local craft groups got together (virtually of course!) to make large numbers of them to donate or sell to people in their town. I was part of Edinburgh Mask Makers and thanks to donations from friends and family was able to make c320 masks, 50 masks adaptors, £175 for others to buy more material and a pile of pre-cut fabric for other sewers to stitch together. Mask wearing also became a highly contentious matter unfortunately with an “anti-mask” movement formed from those who disagreed with the science and often believed conspiracy theories instead, challenging mandates and individual businesses who adopted a mask policy. Anti-mask protests were held in a number of places including, sadly, the UK.

50. Cough. One of the main two symptoms along with fever everyone was on the look out, coughing was immediately connected with a concern over Covid, especially at the start of the pandemic when not much more was known about it other than it started with a cough and high temperature. If you developed a cough you needed to follow guidance relating to isolation and testing and it quickly became something that everyone was looking out for.

51. Levels and Phases. Different countries created their own systems for categories the threat levels within their regions, typically with fixed guidance around social distancing, what would be open, travel restrictions and other related guidance for each level. Here in Scotland we had 5 levels and could check our region online at any time to see which level we were at and what they would mean for us. These 5 levels (level 0 - level 4) were represented by the 5 colours shown in this square. At the time of writing this, Edinburgh is in Level 4 and has been in level 3 or 4 for the whole time the structure has been in place.

52. Wildlife in Towns. As humans stayed at home and areas of cities and towns became quieter with lockdown restrictions meaning no one was travelling in cars, going to offices, shops, restaurants etc, there were many stories of wildlife returning to these areas from deers, goats, racoons, langurs and even sea lions and buffalos making headlines and incredible photos being shared around the globe. See Guardian article: The Urban Wild

53. Elbow Greetings. This was a square I put off making for a while because I honestly didn’t know how to make it! Very early on before we had proper guidance around social distancing but when we knew we were not to shake hands, we started adopting odd ways of greeting each other. These included kicking each other’s feet or rubbing elbows together. It didn’t last long as we began to realise even that was too close but for a while, this is how the world said hello!

54. Vaccine. Not planned but it’s worked out nicely that whilst the first square in my blanket (top left) is the virus itself, the final square is the vaccine, the thing that will ultimately stop the pandemic. With the usual barriers to research out of the way and international cooperation to get vaccines developed, tested, manufactured and distributed vaccines were made available in an incredibly short period of time compared to standard timescales. At present there are four vaccines available, Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazeneka and Johnson & Johnson although not all countries have all four available and with some side effects around blood clots, not all are now available to all age groups. Distribution has been prioritised by age and those working in front line roles or with underlying health conditions. Unfortunately, like with the masks, there is an anti-vaccine movement and we will need to see what potential impact that may have on different populations as we continue to roll out the vaccines globally.