A Close-Knit Community - Tami Lin
Updated: Jun 24, 2020
During the Covid-19 pandemic, knitting became a means of finding order in the chaos happening in the world around me. Counting stitches and keeping track of my rows kept me grounded, and my repeating mantra of knits and purls became an anchor as the number of Covid-19 positive cases continued to rise, and as public health measures became increasingly (and necessarily) stringent. On the online knitting community Ravelry, knitters around the world started creating patterns that would raise Covid-19 awareness, using their platforms to promote safe public health practices. Beautiful works such as the Coronavirus mitten pattern by Lill C. Shei (my finished version pictured below) were posted for free, with the artists only asking for everybody to be respectful citizens—and of course, to stay connected through knitting. These beautiful, intricate, and yet sobering knitting patterns are a testament to these artists' abilities to find beauty in the worst of times, and they serve as a warm knitted reminder of the good in our communities at large.