Knitvent Day 22 – Shoeboxes

A number of years ago, my brother asked us to stop exchanging gifts and to donate what I would normally knit him. Now, I knit ALOT of items year-round that I give away one way or another such as school PAC, hospital, shelters, and to my son’s school when they take on a donation drive like the ShoeBox Project (eg http://www.shoeboxproject.com/victoria.html )


I was upset by my brother doing this, so the first year I still knit a bunch of items that I wrapped in a box for him with a note that he could choose where to donate the items.  This has now become a yearly tradition – I gift a box of knits to my brother for him to donate to a cause of his choosing.

There are a number of charities accepting knits year-round, so if you knit, consider giving shelters some help during the year:

Open Shelter Winter & Summer Needs List

Dandelion Society List of Needs

Setting up

A hanging flower basket on the street lamppost...Image via Wikipedia

Hello world!

We’re just setting things up, not quite ready for the world…yet…but are going to keep a log of our journey 🙂

Under Canada Post rules, we are in ‘Victoria‘, BC. However, anyone that knows the area, understands there are 13 different municipalities that make up Victoria. Right now there are 3 yarn shops in downtown Victoria (great walk between the three), and one in Estevan Village (10 min drive from downtown), and two up in Sidney (30min drive from downtown). On a map, you’ll notice there is ‘nothing’ in the western communities (25 min drive from downtown). However, its this area that is seeing the most growth and development resulting in more and more families moving out to the western communities. At the moment a quilt shop sells a few knitting items, and of course there are the two box stores (Walmart & Michaels – which also have other locations close to downtown). I’ve found there is interest in having knit nights out here, and classes. Currently people travel into town to buy their ‘nicer’ yarns.

So, at the moment, we are looking for space to share with a coffee place – the concept is very much like the Goudy branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library – which is co-located with Mirage Coffee – although we are looking for space that will be a little MORE open between the two spaces.

For now, we are opening accounts, placing orders for inventory, doing mail order, and selling through our classes. We have a Tuesday night class through Juan de Fuca Recreation, and will be hosting a drop-in knitting cafe on Saturday mornings in our front room (pending the studio being ready for the public). We’ll post drop in dates and hours soon!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]