June 9th is World Wide Knit In Public Day

Toronto – The Knit Rabble is at it again! That crazy group of fibre fashionistas are taking their art to the subways and streetcars of Toronto, Saturday June 9thth starting at 9:30am, to celebrate international Knit in Public Day.

Why KIP? According to Jacquie Blackman of the Toronto Knit Collective, “Knitters have rights! They’ve been hiding in their yarn stash for far too long, it’s time to take knitting to the streets.”

Katherine Hajer of the Toronto Knit Rabble adds, “Knitting in public teaches children where socks, sweaters and toques really come from. Contrary to popular mythology, it’s not the mall!”

Riding on the success of their three previous knit-a-longs the Knit Rabble is inviting hip, funky and ironic knitters of every shape, size and colour for their second Spring Fling—a fantasmagorical day of “Stash Enhancement Adventures” (a.k.a. yarn shopping).

The brainchild of Knit Blogger Vivienne Suen and Knitwear Designer Beryl Tsang, of Tit-Bits fame, the Great TTC Knit-A-Long seeks to reclaim public space while celebrating craft and art.

“Knitting creates more than beautiful objects,” say Suen and Tsang, “it creates vibrant communities, even on a crowded bus.”
Knitters wishing to join the Knit Rabble can start their day at one of three locations: the vibrant Village Yarns at Bloor and Royal York, the latte-fuelled Alterknit St.Clair or the ever-so-elegant Passion Knit at Yonge and Lawrence. From there they will “Ride the Rocket” and hit the city’s best independent yarn stores, including Fab Haley’s Knitomatic; the Grande Dame of them all, Romni Wools; the funky Lettuce Knit and the new kid on the block Americo. The Rabble will be wrapping up the day in the Beach at “nabe fave” the Naked Sheep, where rumour has it champagne and treats and maybe Knitting Royalty will be waiting.

To register contact the Knit Rabble at ttcknit.register@gmail.com. The Great TTC Knit-A-Long Passport can be downloaded from the Knit Rabble at their blog at
http://ttcknit.blogspot.com/. Passports include:

• A Knit Rabble Membership Card
• Directions to get to our favourite local yarn shops by TTC
• 10 Great Reasons to knit in public

There will even be prizes for “First Finished Object”, “Most original Object”, Yarnorexia, and “Wittiest Knitticism.”

Rumour also has it that Knitting Royalty may be present.

You can contact the Toronto Knit Rabble through their blog at: http://ttcknit.blogspot.com/

Warning Cats In Stash

Over the winter, our longtime companion Bat Boy (who was also much loved by Pink Vegan Girl), got sicker and sicker. We (and our vet) tried everything we could to bring him around but in the end we had to help him get to Nirvana faster (the state of being not the band with Kurt Cobain). The Unreconstructed Marxist (a.k.a the adolescent) and the Imperious Feminist in Pink (a.k.a. the new marketing demographic or tween) were devastated and went on a hunger strike (between Sunday brunch and Sunday dinner) in support of a 1% solution for homeless cats (a.k.a. we should spend 1% of our family income to provide permanent housing for unloved abandoned kittens forgotten by society). After many entreaties to his social conscience, ("Are you our Dad or an uncaring corporate monster?") the B & C finally relented and we adopted the bourgeoisly named Catherine de Medici (left) and Botticelli (right) from Abbey Cats. The nocturnal little darlings have settled in quite nicely, quietly taking control of 90% of our home including my yarn stash. C de M seems quite satistifed with licking the cashmere while Bot likes pouncing on all balls of yarn that are about. Time to lock up my stash!

Blocking Queen

For those whom the goddesses wish to punish, make them all mothers of oppositionally brilliant 14 year old boys and/or Cricket coaches of the same.

Given that my family life has managed to unravel and my work life has hit high gear, I have had very little time for personal knitting--so no wrist retraints, whips or chains have been completed (after all I am a yarn dom!) I am however, drowning in knitted tits--but then I digress. To help me cope with the "withdrawal symptoms" I have been finishing all the unfinished objects (UFOS) in my "in basket" and reworking objects in my "frog pile." (Anyone for a gefelted fish? It's really an orange carp made from half a sleeve of a sweater that is now a shrug.)

Throughout this process, I have noticed that I am absolutely fanatical about blocking. Now I don't know if it's because I'm an asymmetrical knitter (e.g. I was sipping on too many cosmos while knitting so my pieces don't quite fit together) or it's my Chinese sense of shame over slightly askew garments, Confucious say, "All knitted objects must be aesthetically pleasing." So I checked it out with my friend Rebel Knitter, who told me, "If your mother says block, you block!" (Well my mother never said that but then she knit with Phentyx which didn't need to be blocked. It's also not a yarn but an abomination but I won' go there!) According to one of R.K.'s Rebbes (or Rabbi who is also a knitter) the 11th commandment is "Thou shall block all knitted objects." This commandment along with the 12th and 13th "Thou shall always eat chocolate with thy knitting." and "Thou shall always love thy knitting." respectively however, got lost when the last of the Dead Sea Tupperware was recycled by the giant blue box in the desert.

I don't know how anyone can get away with not blocking, my other good friend, the Wooley Mammoth (who is not at all hairy or large but quite blonde and lithe) thinks she can and she gets away with it most of the time (Aiya, you should've seen-or was it yeshiva seen?-her fitted Vogue jacket) but her last Finished Object (FO) a.k.a. the Rowan Tank fetching as it was would have benefited with a good steam block. Mind you she looks beautiful in everthing so all of this could just be extreme bitchiness on my part because I had to steam block my last cotton tankini twice so I could fit into it (I am rather full figured shall we say.)

On the Cricket front I too am also a "Blocking Queen", no one touches my wickets! This is a good thing, as I can't seem to hit anything lately and have been accused by my beloved former boss/coach "Wicket Rider" of "bowling like a girl." Bat-Man" a.k.a. my training partner whom I knit bat cozies for thinks that I should just give up playing Cricket altogether and just "stick to my knitting" while I cheer him on. "Go Bat Man, go!"

Knitters Gone Wild

Okay it wasn't enough that I started and amourous affair with Ipswich (my angora goat) I also had to buy Jennifer Stafford's Domiknitrix: How to Whip Your Knitting into Shape.

I think I'm having a mid-life crisis. No one loves me, the B & C is golfing every weekend, the teenager is buried in his "pit of despair" (I mean bedroom) and the tween likes to pretend she doesn't know me when her friends are around. I've started hitting bars to knit (while wearing a head lamp of course so I can actually see the stitches) and I've gotten other people into it. My friend Bob the Bassist still can't believe that newbie knitter Nalini and I knit through his band Galactic Lunch's (or was it Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters'?) whole set recently at the Horseshoe.

I just bought tickets for Michael Franti and Spearhead at Kool Haus and then went shopping for a hip fanny pack so I could sneak my addi lace turbo needles and bamboo silk in to the concert. (Hey he's a vegan yogi and I don't want to be knitting with silk at his concert, it might disturb the karmanic harmonies or something.)

Worse, I've turned into a "Yarn Dom" yelling things like, "Take that you badly carded piece of roving!" while drop spindling.

I know that this a case of a knitter behaving badly but I'm making up for lost time. Back in the 1990s while my friends were hanging around NXNE enjoying the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Phantoms and Alien Lovechild, I was chasing "the Boy" about and knitting stupid animal toques. Then when everyone I knew was going to Y-2K parties and consumed with the apocalypse I was trying to wean "the Girl" ("Boobs bad, moo juice good.") and knitting Barbie Pink mittens (eew)

I wonder if security will notice me knitting at the Police and if Sting will care?

Wild Child

I'm a wild child. I've started a long distance relationship with an angora goat. His name is Ipswich and he lives in the Caledon Hills. I know I shouldn't have done this but the B & C is now away at places where there are no really good local yarn stores--it's Houston this week, the 14 year old no longer talks to me --he just grunts in my general direction and the 9 year old has disowned me for living in 1985. Plus I broke up with a bag of Noro Silk Garden I had been romping with since January. It just wouldn't turn into what I wanted. I needed to feel the love or take up spinning.

Still Can't Knit Continental But Can Obsess Over Cricket

Yesterday I had to do that thing called work. I don't like working at the best of times but get even more irritable about it when colleagues come back from six-week long vacations in the Caribbean relaxed and serene. One particular colleague taxed my goodwill to the nth degree by providing a play by play of her adventures "island hopping" to watch the Cricket World Cup.

She vexed me so unreasonably when talking about the final win by the Thunder from Down Under, that I was forced to furtively knit English (which is hell on my RSI) under my desk.

Yes I know that in addition to knitting too much, I'm obsess about cricket too much (there's also this thing I do with yoga but I won't go into that right now), but I must admit that I don't get as fanatic as this off-the-wall Lefty whose blog I've been lurking. Check him out at: http://www.magma.ca/~brich/Mylogframe250on.html#anchor370012

I'm a "Bad Wife"

At my house the definition of a bad wife is not a woman who has an affair with her yoga teacher, forgets to pick up the dry cleaning/children or accidentally poisons the cat. No, it's a woman that loses a lace shawl knitted from mohair, that her husband travelled two hemsipheres, three continents and five time zones to buy her.

In the winter of 2006 the "Ball & Chain" left a Toronto snow storm to attend the Aspen Institute Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility in Cape Town, South Africa (I'm not going to comment on the irony here), where it was sinfully sunny.

Between frolics with pingus (aka Penguins who escaped the Antarctic for warmer climes), the di rigeur meetings with government and business leaders ("Yes, Minister, No Minister."), trips to the Stellenboch wineries ("You must try the Shiraz!") and a visit to Robben Island, ("Mindblowing!"), the B & C spent all of his spare time scouring every textile outlet in Cape Town and its environs for yarn, in particular South African mohair, touted to be the best in the world.

He discovered much to his chagrin that while South Africa exports 75% of the world's mohair, very little is sold domestically "It's too bloody hot here to wool gather mate!" he was told over and over again. "But you don't understand," he wailed, "If I don't come home with any mohair, my wife will kill me."

Eventually a very frustrated hotel concierge suggested to the B & C that his wife might be even happier with diamonds or tanzanite which were also produced locally (albeit explotively) and available widely (albeit expensively). "No," he replied,"You don't know my wife, she's yarn obsessed!"

Finally he gave up and went shopping for an Ostrich feather featherduster (Don't ask why but I'm sure there is an S & M fantasy here somehwere) and there on Cape Town's St. George's Mall he came upon Karoo Classics http://www.karooclassics.co.za/ where he bought their WHOLE STASH of mohair for ME, ME, ME!

If ever I needed evidence that he loved me after 20+ years of marriage, this was it.

Of course he also had to buy another bag to haul it home which caused him great consternation at Canada Customs. Fortunately the official in charge was sympathetic, "My wife collects minatures," he confided to the B & C.

Well the shawl I made from one skein of it is now gone and despite my best efforts at retracing my steps, I cannot find it anywhere. This must be the revenge of the Knitting God for knitting all those stupid bat cozies--why on earth would anyone actually need one? Cricket bats hit cricket balls which are HARD!

Mind you I still have a huge bag of stash like 24 balls left....