It was announced this afternoon that Marin County residents will need to shelter-in-place starting at midnight tonight until at least April 7. (That’s a long time inside our homes!) Thankfully, we have creative people in the world to help us through this stressful time with projects to help reduce our anxiety. Today, Arne & Carlos have surprised knitters by launching the Quarantine Mystery Knitalong.

If you’ve never heard of Arne & Carlos, then you really should check them out. They are two pretty well-known Scandinavian knit designers who have published books like “Norwegian Knits with a Twist” and “Knit-and-Crochet Garden” (which seems to be out of print, unfortunately).

I first learned about Arne & Carlos on YouTube some years ago. Of course, I was interested in their Scandinavian point of view and aesthetic and I really liked how they successfully made traditional motifs feel new and fresh. Their shows are funny. Carlos does most of the talking, while Arne, who doesn’t speak English as well, seems to be the faster knitter of the two. It’s great to see this couple share their love of knitting. Besides having published several books, you can also find them on their blog arnecarlos.com.

Thanks to Arne & Carlos’ creativity, we can now take our minds off the stressful news and the new reality we are living in, at least for a little while, by concentrating on different knit designs that will help us not only enjoy a little quiet time focused on something else than bad news but also getting a chance to connect with the other people around the world that are in our same situation.

This project will have another positive effect on knitters, as it will most likely help many of us use up some of the yarn that we’ve stored in our closets, drawers, ottomans, wooden chests, under the beds, armoires… I know I’m not alone!

So hey, why don’t you go grab some yarn and join this KAL with me? The first design published today is adorable. If you only knit one of the swatch-sized squares, make this one. I know I will. I’m going to be using a slightly different yarn than what they recommend, so I hope it still looks as pretty as theirs. AND, they mention they are not doing double-knitting to make this more accessible for all knitting levels, but after seeing their double-knit sample, I know that’s something I really want to learn how to make.

So neat!

Stay home. Wash your hands. Wink at your friends. 😉