Crafting gives you the sheer wool power to believe in life after lockdown

It's the day before lockdown. Our last chance to stock up on those non-essentials we'll need to get us through the next 21 (wouldn't that have been nice?) days.

For me there's only one item on my shopping list. Wool. I head to my local craft shop and am stopped in my tracks by what I see. Forget toilet paper. Teenagers, adults and grannies alike are charging for their favourite skeins, social distancing be damned as they stock up on everything from mohair to merino.

When I eventually join the queue I tune into the conversations around me and am comforted by the sense of solidarity among these crafters. There are questions on colour, advice on patterns, and of course, the ubiquitous "What are you making?"

Craft, it seems, is a physical manifestation of hope, because "a jersey for my soon-to-be-born granddaughter", "a blanket for my school's charity project", "a quilt for my friend who is getting married in September" - all speak of a return to normality, of life after coronavirus.

For many years now my mornings have started with crochet. I find it akin to meditation, a quiet, calming few minutes to set the tone for what usually becomes a harried day. And now is no different, except that the days are no longer harried, and those stolen minutes have become long, lazy stretches, often repeated throughout the day.

So much so that three weeks into lockdown I have crocheted a blanket, knitted three scarves, sewed two cat toys and printed out patterns for countless face masks that admittedly sit unmade.

One thing I've come to realise over the past few weeks is that while craft is a solitary endeavour, it also has the ability to bring people together.

During lockdown I have pointed a few friends in the direction of YouTube tutorials and blog posts, so they can use this time to learn the basics of crochet, the same way I did. It has been a unifying and incredibly rewarding experience, receiving their project updates via Instagram and WhatsApp.

Globally, there have been countless corona-inspired craft drives, from sewing masks for healthcare workers to knitting blankets for charities, and these have given thousands of people, locked down at home, a common sense of purpose over and above the personal benefits brought on by their hobbies.

For there are myriad benefits of craft - research shows that knitting, for one, helps to lower anxiety, improve cognitive function, combat arthritis and lower blood pressure.

More immediately, when our days are so defined by waiting, it offers not only an invaluable way of passing the time but also a sense of achievement. Watching a project take shape is a phenomenal counterbalance to the uncertainty of the world around us.

Life has slowed down, time has morphed into an abstract concept and nobody knows where to from here. During all this, I've found something incredibly satisfying about watching a ball of yarn shape into a solid item. As such, I've become pretty attached to the blanket I made. As much as the wool is holding itself together, it's managed to hold me together.

The blanket was meant as a gift but I may just want to hang onto it. A souvenir, as such, of the wildest time I hope we ever live through.