In homage to Harry Styles, I tried to knit a grungy cloak of homemade smugness | Rebecca Nicholson

I wanted to learn a skill that would come in handy after society collapsed - perhaps I should have taken up unarmed combat

The cardigan was conceived in anxiety, so no wonder it came out looking like that. I started knitting in lockdown, because keeping my hands occupied made it harder to refresh news apps.

At some point over the last year, as Covid worries began to retreat, knitting hitched itself to climate-based worries instead. I'm not saying it's rational, but hear me out: my brain has been dabbling with doomsday prepper" for its 2022 theme, and I reasoned with it that knitting was an essential skill for a rapidly changing world.