This project was a KAL that began in March 2020 and ended June 2020. If you purchased this pattern before June 14, 2020, you got it in weekly installations. The final file is now posted.

YOU MUST WORK FROM CHARTS FOR THIS PROJECT

Additions to date:
3/20/20: Background information, material list and COVID-19 links only.
3/22/20: Added directions until border, Chart Key, Chart 1 (Pears) and Spacer Chart. Please enjoy and stay home.
3/28/20: COVID-19 links updated. Chart 2 (A Favorite Tree) added. Directions and chart key are updated for clarity and more details.
4/5/20: Charts 3 (Wild Strawberries) and 4 (Coeur de Marie) added. Detail added to notes on making nupps.
4/12/20: Chart 4 (Wild Blueberries) added. Directions are updated. Chart key is updated. A few typos are fixed!
4/19/20: Pattern 6 added! Knit on through adversity. Remember that we are just flattening the curve so the healthcare system can care for everyone who is ill without getting overwhelmed. If we open things up too quickly, all the hard work will be undone. Please stay home, stay safe and knit:)
4/26/10: Charts 7 and 8 added, plus notes on those memories. Please stay home, stay safe and enjoy!
5/3/20: Chart 9 added, pus notes on those memories. Please stay safe!
5/10/20: Border chart added, directions updated, finished size updated, photos updated to showed patterns fully blocked. enjoy and stay safe!
5/17/20: Edging chart added, directions updated, photos of all sections to date added and cheesecake shots slipped in. Links updated to include link to videos of a weekly symposium we have where I work. This includes a diverse selection of real time research across disciplines and is very interesting.
6/14/20: Finishing directions added. File is now complete.

Sheltering in Place: a memory sampler
THIS INTRO WAS POSTED IN MARCH 2020 and the KAL is now (June 2020) Complete. I am leaving this here for posterity:)
As people begin to distance themselves socially, we find ourselves with time to think. And time on our hands (to use our hands!) I have been designing and knitting a sampler to honor my mom, and am finding it very cathartic. Some of you know she died in 2019. Of course, that was before the pandemic. My knitting time has been curtailed, but the knitting remains a comfort. It occurs to me that it might also be comforting to you too. I am a nurse in New York City, so I am not sheltering in place right now. In fact, I am going to work all day every day. But I suspect many people are social distancing, sheltering in place and in quarantine. And if you are not you should be and will be soon.*

I started this project as a memory piece. As some of you know, I lost my mother in 2019. She had a long fight with lung cancer, and the cancer finally won last January. Early in 2020 I began designing a memory sampler. I started charting stitch patterns and thinking about memories with my mom. Each pattern began to take on a time or place I experienced with her. I cast-on and immersed myself in the feeling of each time and place, as I knit each pattern. The project is still evolving as I design and continue knitting the border and edging. The process has been both bitter and sweet and very peaceful for me.

Although this is designed around my memories, you can put your own feelings, memories or milestones in their place. I will share just a little about the memories I knit into each section, along with some images that are there for me. But then you can instill your own meaning into each section.

This project is perfect to mark special event: weddings, new babies, losses, major events like pandemics…

Quick details:
The construction is:
Cast-on using provisional cast-on.
Work flat back and forth for a rectangle that uses 9 different patterns.
Pick-up all around and work circular border.
Work edging back and forth, binding off as you go.
Materials:
1640 yards of lace-weight yarn (if you do all the huge nupps.) I am using white. I suggest a solid or semi solid. You might make a gradient work. You can also use whatever you like because you can do whatever you want.
-If you do smaller nupps you will use less yarn.
-If you replace the nupps with beads you will use even less yarn.
-Did I mention nupps?
Each 9 stitch nupp takes about 7” of yarn. There are about 1364 nupps without the border. This means if you replace nupps with beads you will use about 250 fewer yards of yarn.
You can use one color for the center and another one for the border and even a third for the edging. I do not have exact yardages for you right now.
Appropriate size (for your yarn) 40” circular knitting needle.
Waste yarn for cast-on.
Yarn snips, yarn needle, stitch markers, the usual suspects…
Knit on through adversity,
Andrea

Are you freaking out? Don’t. But do access evidence based information. Here are some good links:

COVID-19 links
New York City Department of Health
Healthcare Provider Page
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/providers/health-topics/novel-respiratory-viruses.page

General Information Page
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/coronavirus.page
CROI Coronavirus update: video of Coronavirus specific presentations
https://special.croi.capitalreach.com/
Time Speaker and Topic
1:27 Zunyou, WU, Chinese CDC
COVID-19 update from China
14:30 John Brooks, US CDC
Global epidemiology and prevention of COVID
30:45 Ralph Baric, virologist
Virology of Coronaviruses
1:00:00 Anthony Fauci, NIAID
Research Response
1:13:00 Dr. Baric
Questions and Answers

CDC
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/world/coronavirus-update-latest-news.html
You have to register as a user but it is free to everyone.