This is the first Friday that we have had to cancel our knitting group because of Coronavirus (COVID-19).  So, it’ll have to be a virtual group from now until further notice.

I hope everyone’s ok and not suffering from either virus related ills or the strain of isolation. Maybe you’re like one of our ladies who said: ‘…for me, lockdown has made little difference as I normally self-isolate as a matter of course, as I don’t like people, so I am baking and meal planning and happily knitting my way through my stash.’ I think I might just agree with some of that but I won’t say which bit – let’s just say it’s not the baking part….

Please note that in this time of crisis, and because I’ll be desperate for something to write, anything you write in an email to me might end up here…….nuff said.

When we met last Friday – it was Friday the 13th if you hadn’t noticed – we marked our group’s impending suspension with extra portions of Christine’s delicious lemon and blueberry cake.

It had nuts sprinkled on top, but only on part of it because one of our ladies doesn’t like nuts so Christine, very thoughtfully (but that’s what she’s like!), left a portion clear of nuts just for her.

There weren’t many of us on Friday; some weren’t well (not Covid-19), some were away, some I don’t know about because they didn’t give me an absence note. That meant that we could double up on portions of cake. Yum!

Cake has become such a regular part of our Friday tea break that I’m thinking of renaming our group. Knitting Friends in the Park with Cake? Hmmm, maybe not. Knitting Friends Eating Cake? Knitting Friends and Cake? Knitting Cake? Now there’s a thought! Not that I want to put any thoughts in anyone’s mind. But there’s a huge number of knitting patterns for cake and we could do with a substitute for those times when Christine doesn’t deliver.  I didn’t mean that the way it came out -it sounds awful! Christine is brilliant and I often tell her she shouldn’t be baking so often for us but she will insist on doing it and we do appreciate her doing so – HUGELY! She’s a very talented lady and knits beautifully too.

Christine knitted this lovely baby’s cardigan from left-over bits of yarn. A clever way of minimising waste and utilising every last scrap of yarn.

What would you do with the bits of yarn you have left from projects? It can be hard to use if they’re different  thicknesses.

Another talented knitter is Agnes who’s made a beautiful blanket for her grand-daughter Abigail. It’s her own design with the colours chosen by Abigail. It was quite challenging choosing the various patterns for the squares so that they fitted well together. As all knitters know, not all patterns knit up to the same dimensions.

It’s not quite finished – the ‘Ab’ is the start of ‘Abigail’, not a full alphabet. It will look lovely on Ab’s bed.

Just before I go:-

• Keep a lookout for UK Handknitting Associations virtual knitting group. It’s something that’s being trialled at the moment.
• There’s  a recently formed Facebook group called ‘Heatons Covid-19 self isolation neighbourhood outreach’ which is aiming to match volunteers with people self-isolating at home and needing assistance with shopping, dog walking etc.  So heartening to see how quickly our friends and neighbours have rallied round!

This is it for now. 

See you next week (virtually). 

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