Cabled Blanket

From the Artist: In March, 2020 I was living alone, already working from home, and slowly going crazy from the isolation, not being able to give or receive hugs from family or friends. I suddenly had more time than ever before in my life. What could I do with spending all those extra hours indoors? What would help me feel less anxious about the pandemic raging outside my home? It was then that I remembered a knitting project I had been procrastinating starting—it was by far the most complicated pattern I’d ever attempted. It was also a blanket I’d been dreaming of making for years as well as the first item I was knitting for myself; previously, everything I knit was for my children or grandchildren. Stitch by patient stitch, cable by cable, I worked on it. Sometimes I’d have to rip it out and begin again, which was a lesson in patience. And didn’t I need patience to live through this awful year? In February 2021, I finished the blanket and received my first dose of vaccine. So today I feel safer than ever, protected by my cozy blanket and, at long last, the second vaccination.