Get out your knitting needles for world knit day.
Brenna MacDonald helps her brother Blake with his knitting while Matthew Kosichek and Daniel Bruncke work on their own knitting in the background during last year's Worldwide Knit in Public Day. This year the event takes place June 12 at Wise Daughters Craft Market on Dundas Street West.
File photo/ANICE WONG
Knitting tends to be a solitary hobby, however, the proprietor of Wise Daughters Craft Market in the Junction is enticing knitters to embrace the activity in the company of others with her second annual Worldwide Knit in Public Day event, Sunday, June 12.
On the heels of several knitting and "yarn-storming" activities," Mary Breen is gearing up for the Worldwide Knit in Public Day party outside her store at Dundas Street West and Pacific Avenue.
"Nearly everybody knits it seems, young and old," said Breen, Tuesday afternoon, May 31. "The point is to take people out of their homes and out of their chairs in front of the TV and socialize."
Last year, Breen, alongside Michelle Van Looy of That's Women's Work and Sadie Lewis, founder of Streetknit, brought knitters together in an attempt to break a Guinness Book World Record for the most knitters in one place at one time. Their attempt fell short in part because of inclement weather, but still 200 knitters participated despite the rain.
"We still had a blast," recalled Breen, adding that this year she's prepared for whatever the weather throws their way.
The group will either knit inside her shop or under a tent.
Knitting is all the rage these days, said Breen. Inspired by 'graffiti knitting,' a phenomenon that has taken off in England and has seen phone booths, utility poles, even bridges covered in yarn, Breen thought it would be challenging and fun to see if she and her knitting cohorts could knit a cozy large enough to cover an entire car last year as part of the Junction Arts Festival. Volunteers covered an entire Nissan Cube, donated by Auto Share. The car cozy was turned into several large knitted blankets for Street Knit, an organization that puts knitting needles together to create sweaters, hats, mittens, socks and scarves for Toronto's homeless.
The Worldwide Knit in Public event will include a knitting relay during which participants will create a scarf for the charity. The afternoon will be comprised of free knitting instruction, prizes, live music by 'The Girls are Back in Town' as well as a yarn swap - bring a ball of sensible warm wool or acrylic for Streetknit (visit www.streetknit.ca for details) and go home with a ball of something soft, special or silly in exchange, said Breen.
This is a free event that takes place between 1 and 5 p.m. rain or shine. Wise Daughters is located at 3079B Dundas St. W. Visit www.wisedaughters.com for details.