Reflecting on Covid brought happy thoughts and tears to Sharon OBrien. She writes about how a hobby she took up to keep her anxiety at bay grew into a vibrant community project.
I kept myself Covid free for the first year, living like everybody else did in our own bubble. Reality struck when my daughter whom was heavily pregnant contracted Covid and was put in an induced state.
My beautiful granddaughter was born, something none of our family will ever forget. Both mummy and daughter are doing well now, although they have long Covid and premature baby issues.
"All the ladies benefitted from the social interaction and losing that was a challenge."
I used to teach needle felting prior to Covid and had a lovely group of 15 ladies who all struggled through Covid. The nature of group kept their spirits up, all the ladies benefitted from the social interaction and losing that was a challenge. I tried Zoom with them but it didn’t work.
I had a long hard think during Covid. I was suffering with panic attacks and so I set myself a challenge to learn to crochet. I discovered it was very good for keeping anxiety at bay. With this insight into the benefits of crocheting, as the restrictions were lifted in 2022 I decided to offer one to one tuition. I taught 18 ladies to crochet and all have kept it up.
With this success, and as group activities were now being encouraged, I set about starting a Knit and Natter Group for likeminded ladies.
A chance conversation I had with a friend led to the idea of starting a Yarn Bombing Group. The idea of bringing our creations to a larger audience caught the group’s imagination. Our small group of ladies has now grown to 42 across two sessions on a Thursday.
I listened to my heart and in doing so I discovered something that I could share. Through this sharing, a fabulous community of creative ladies now bring so much joy to the community of Winsford.
Crosshatch Gallery in Winsford was part of a Covid 19 Reflections micro commission. Find out more here.
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