I've been in Hamilton, ON for almost a month and it's amazing how comfortable and settled I feel here - the weather has been gloriously sunny and mild and I never dreamed I would be walking around Canada in a t-shirt in November. I've been exploring my new home while trying (pretty half-heartedly I have to admit!) to find a job, discovering lovely coffee shops, my local library and farmer's market. I finally got my hands on a bike last week, and it has revolutionized my life - flying along the bike lanes on Cannon st in the autumn sunshine has been the high point of most of my days since. I've been to a lecture on the local food movement in Hamilton at the university, met a beekeeper and picked a pumpkin from the patch for Halloween. I've even taken up yoga. It's fair to say my days have been pretty packed, but somehow I've also managed to seriously indulge my crochet cravings. I hit up a couple of fantastic yarn sales and doubled the size of our collection…the bag of yarn is now pretty much an entire corner of the living room. And oh, how I've been making my way through it!
On the second Friday of every month the city of Hamilton holds Art Crawl, an arts and crafts market, on James St downtown. Artists are invited to come to James St and display their wares, free of charge, to the wandering public. As soon as I heard about the event I knew I wanted to get in on it - the main reason I've avoided markets is the high cost of renting a stall - so since almost my first day I've been desperately crocheting every moment I get (including whilst waiting for a job interview!) to get some goods together. Scarves and gloves seemed the obvious place to start…
Some beautiful cotton yarn on sale became a range of yoga headbands…
And there's clearly no need to explain the appeal of making these tea cozies!
The Vintage Tea Garden on Locke St will have a display of cozies for sale - I'm hoping tea lovers find them as adorable as I do (in fact, here's the one I made just for me!)
But I've spent most of my time in the last week making Remembrance poppies to raise money for the Canadian Royal Legion. It started with one for myself and one for my housemate - within days people were asking if I could make a couple for them and their buddy/kid/boss. Around the same time I stumbled across a knitting group that meets every other Wednesday night at at baby store in my neighbourhood, and while I was there making more poppies I asked the owner if I could put a jar on their counter to collect donations. She agreed, and during the week I made around 60 - the last lot ran out on Saturday afternoon, and I collected the donation jar on Remembrance Day. In less than one week we managed to raise $164 - I'm so pleased people liked the poppies enough to get one, and to donate so generously for them…people of Hamilton, good on ya!
Art Crawl is tomorrow, and I'm nervous to have my things on display for sale for the first time. But all the lovely crafty ladies I've met in the last few weeks have been so encouraging and helpful, and the response to a simple little flower was so positive that I can't help but be hopeful. At the very least I know I'm going to enjoy hanging out on James St with my knitting, a thermos of mulled cider and a steady supply of muffins from my favourite coffee shop…there are worse ways to spend a Friday night!
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