TTC knit-a-long

Last Saturday I took part in the TTC knit-a-long all day knitting extravaganza. I was on the west team because I live in beautiful Parkdale. First stop was the Drake cafe where some people had breakfast and our team leader, Beryl handed out our Knit-a-long passports and taught us a song about yarn. For my project, I decided to continue on the pink socks of despair.

First stop, the Knit Cafe.


Beryl Tsang at the Knit Cafe



Liz and the nice girl who works at the knitcafe.



Hilarity ensues

We stopped here and knit for a long time, some people bought things and most people knit.

Eventually we hopped onto a streetcar and went on to Romni wools. I had a yarn budget of $80 and was on a mission to find some yarn similar to Rowan polar to make this
capelet that everyone is making right now. Although I was interested in checking out the other yarn stores on our itinirary, I knew Romni was the best place to find non-specialty, non-Rowan, non-Debbie Bliss, slightly more within my budget yarn. I managed to find 2 different yarns that I liked, land and marte both by Ornaghi Filate. I really like this company because they are Italian and their logo is a Panda bear. I bought 4 skeins of each yarn and a book on stitch patterns.

Some of the girls decided to teach Liz, the reporter who was coming along for the ride, how to knit...but first they needed to wind the wool.


makeshift woolwinder outside of Romni.

We then went to a coffee place and knit and knit and eventually wandered up to Kensington Market to go to Lettuce Knit...to ummm knit.


Lettuce Knit

Some people bought things here. I sat outside and worked on the sock of misery.


Sandi & friend (courtesy of Page)






knitting (and in some cases; crocheting) while waiting for the other teams.

After a few hours, the other teams showed up and entertained us with TTC knitting adventures as we compared purchases. I got quite a lot done on the sock of pain and woe, but then realized when I tried it on, that I had messed up the stitch pattern (again). So I ended up unravelling about 3 inches or so. I think the photographer got a picture of me in tears doing that. Eventually we all ended up on Queen street and swarmed onto a streetcar bound east.

and we knit.





Jen Hendriks and friends knitting TTC style.

and people stared at us.


new knitting convert and Star reporter Liz.read her article here

and the streetcar was too jiggly for me to get any more decent pictures. Eventually we ended up at the Naked Sheep but by that point I was tired of taking photos. They had lots of sweets for us at the store, people bought stuff and prizes were awarded. I purchased an Interweave magazine and used up my yarn budget. All in all, it was a fun day and I went home exhausted and ready to start knitting something besides the sock of hideousness.




This is what I bought. Yes, some of the yarn is shockingly pink and fluffy. I must be losing it. The other yarn is actually sort of a khaki colour and is apparently quite similar to Rowan polar.




This is the half finished capelet that doesn't really cover my gianormous rack. It's actually not supposed to cover the rack, however I think I'll make the second one a little bigger in the front and at the neckline to get a little more coverage and if I have enough of the pink yarn left over I will make a matching panta so I can rock the Scandanavian, fluffy pink ski bunny look and as for the sock(s)...I'm thinking they should be anklets.