At the TTC Kni­ta­long – an annu­al char­i­ty event in which groups of crafters spend a Sat­ur­day trav­el­ling (and knitting/crocheting) on pub­lic tran­sit to vis­it mul­ti­ple yarn shops across the city.

Pro­ceeds of the event go to a local women-cen­tered agency, par­tic­i­pants get to hang out with fel­low crafters and meet new peo­ple, yarn shops get lots of vis­i­tors and love — every­body wins! Who­ev­er invent­ed this is a genius. It is in its 10th year and this year’s got the biggest turn out yet! The only dis­ap­point­ment is that I did­n’t know about this in pre­vi­ous years… will def­i­nite­ly join again next year.

And now, some pic­tures from my day :D

My group start­ed at Wool-Gath­er­ing in the west end. It has on dis­play this beau­ti­ful rug, which makes me want to learn rug hook­ing one day.

I also love these small rugs with vibrant, abstract designs.

Our next stop was Pas­sionknit. Look at these deli­cious colours! More excit­ed than a kid in a can­dy shop :D

I spot­ted this pho­to of me on insta­gram, knit­ting along on the sub­way, and chat­ting with our awe­some team cap­tain :D (if you’re won­der­ing, I’m mak­ing a key­hole scarf in fish­er­man rib)

In the mean­while, our oth­er team cap­tain com­plet­ed a snowflake on the sub­way while stand­ing the entire time!

Then we hopped on the approach­ing train above and made our way to a sun-filled Let­tuce Knit in Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket. These friend­ly ones are enjoy­ing the sun­ny spots and relax­ing by the knit­ting pile…

Also hang­ing out in the sun…

This was when I remem­bered what my mom used to always say to me when I was a kid and we were at the store and I want­ed to bring home all the plush ani­mals. “You can give it a hug and put it back.“ Such dreamy colours…

We spent some time on the patio out­side. Spot­ted these cheer­ful yarn-wrapped branch­es. My phone cam­era does not do the colours and sun­shine justice.

And this beau­ti­ful yarn-bombed bike!

More knit­ting on the streetcar…

… and arriv­ing at our final shop, The Knit Cafe :D I’ve always been a big fan of the shop and its fab­u­lous win­dow displays.

Peo­ple chat­ting about pat­terns, mar­veling at the wool, the warm after­noon sun pour­ing in, the ball-winder busy spin­ning… the hap­pi­est place :)

And look who I ran into :D

Found the secret knit­ting garden.

Here we are at our final stop, the Firkin for drinks, food, and more knitting.

I did­n’t buy a whole lot that day, was­n’t at all pre­pared with shop­ping list or even project list, and feel­ing slight­ly over­whelmed most of the time (not a bad thing though), main­ly because I did­n’t know what to expect. But I did get a skein of hand-dyed wool from Wool-Gath­er­ing (far left), because the colours remind me of sun­sets, and a giant skein of Cas­cade Eco­log­i­cal wool (cen­tre), because I love the colour and it was the last skein on the shelf (I already have an idea of a sweater for it, but have to fin­ish my hol­i­day craft­ing first). ALSO! I won a draw at Let­tuce Knit, which gen­er­ous­ly donat­ed 4 skeins of wool the colour of straw­ber­ry ice cream :D I was rather sur­prised, because I don’t ever win anything.

This means I def­i­nite­ly have to join the kni­ta­long again next year :D

I actu­al­ly don’t knit or cro­chet on pub­lic tran­sit very often, because some­times I get motion sick­ness from it, espe­cial­ly on the bus. But after the kni­ta­long I think I will start bring­ing my knit­ting to work, so I can at least knit after work on the sub­way (there is no hope of get­ting a seat in the morn­ing, and I haven’t devel­oped the skill to knit/crochet while stand­ing yet :P). It’s actu­al­ly quite calm­ing, and I think it will do me more good in terms of de-stress­ing than play­ing Angry Birds.

Hope every­one has a won­der­ful week! :D