It was clear by early March that we wouldn’t be going anywhere soon. Japan imposed a quarantine from the Monday after we wouldn’t have arrived for our ski trip to Hokkaido. We cancelled. At that point I was still hopeful that I’d make my trip home in April and was severely limiting my contacts in anticipation of meeting up with immuno-suppressed friends. In the end that was not to be either. Nor were choirs meeting as the venues had all been closed to superspreaders’ rehearsals.

How to use my time instead? Having recently finished my two knitting projects I decided that there’s a limit to the amount of jumpers I need in Hong Kong and the idea of improving my crochet skills appealed.

I’m currently working on two data representation projects, a temperature blanket and a wall hanging calendar thing. I’ve got through an awful lot of cotton year this year and it will be a long, long time before I make anything pink or orange again.

In September, notwithstanding my works in progress, I started the Havana blanket from a design by @TinnaHekl using Ultima yarn from Manos Del Uruguay, which is a fair trade organisation supporting Uruguay women who produce yarn to be marketed by small independent outlets like @TribeYarns. It seemed an ideal way to try and support smaller businesses and individuals in the midst of the worldwide pandemic catastrophe.

Ultima is my first ever variegated yarn and my very favourite colourway is this Peach Melba shade. I adore the pinks and especially the oranges in this yarn – I have a thing for orange as you know – that provide a riotous contrast to the alternate mosaic rows in shades of slate and pewter. The merino wool is a sublime to work with and as I crochet each stitch in the mosaic and the colours gradually change it makes me think of the woman who hand-dyed this skein and how she made up her mind about where to place the orange, the pink, the white. What was her intention? How would she imagine the project finished in the yarn she’d crafted? From a woman in Uruguay consigned to London and thence posted to me in Hong Kong, it’s a direct connection between women, an international sisterhood.