While Cordova is an awesome and beautiful place, and The Net Loft is an amazing shop, I think my favourite part of my visit was the knitters. There were so many warm and welcoming knitters, they immediately made me feel right at home! By then end of the weekend I was waving at cars as they passed when I walked down the street and stopping to chat in the grocery store parking lot. I felt like a local!
It seemed like so many were knitting gansey sweaters (popular among the group was the Fisher Lassie), and there were so many awesome Bowline hats! During the show-and-tell portion of my Thursday evening talk, I was delighted to hear knitters share stories of their very first sweater: Flax. I wish I had pictures of all of them to show, there was an adorable wee green one in the colour ‘Pan’ from Skeins in the Stacks, and one in a Three Irish Girls colourway, ‘Salmon’ that had been worn and loved.
When Emily and I dreamed up the Simple Collection, and the Flax and Harvest sweaters in particular, we hoped that they would inspire knitters who might be a bit timid to try a garment. It seems like it’s working! Michelle was good enough to share a pic of her hubby out on the boat in the Flax she had knit him!
Amber wore her beautiful and inspirational sweater when we went on our trip to see Child’s Glacier. It is a gansey she knit, and when she told the story of her sweater I was rapt. Each stitch pattern held a different meaning in her life (anchors and fish featured prominents), and she had even put her initials in a purl pattern at the hem. To me it was everything I love about knitting, it was a labour of love, personalized in every detail, and in a colour that knitters who know her well described as ‘so Amber’. Just lovely!
Sometimes in my project zeal and *ahem* lack of ability to ‘reel it in’, I forget the simple pleasures of knitting something that is unique and one of a kind. Each sweater I knit ends up being original in one way or another (choosing a different yarn and colour, adding an inch to the arms for Hunter, that time I forgot to work sleeve increases for a few inches, etc.) but it isn’t usually my intention from the start.
This trip inspired me to think a little more about the meaning behind the projects and yarns I choose (rather than just thinking ‘ooh pretty, I want it!’). It has inspired me once again to create special and meaningful knits. I knit a lot for my kids, trying to keep them wrapped in Mama’s woollies as much as I can. In Cordova I was reminded that perhaps a little less quantity and a little more thoughtfulness might make my knitting and the finished woollies even more rewarding.
TCK knits that are popular with the Cordova crowd:
August 12, 2017 @ 1:06 pm
I casually clicked on the link for the Fisher Lassie and was smitten. Bought the pattern, jumped in the car and into town for wool. Spent the afternoon knitting instead of housework – oh happy day – and feel so excited. Thank you so much for sharing, love your blog.