Montreal Crafting Retailers

I have lived in Montreal all my life, but it never ceases to amaze me how dispersed the Montreal crafting scene is - I continue to discover that more and more friends of mine are crafters, and yet, we're not meeting, we're not forming community, and we're not supporting our own. The ease of purchasing craft supplies online has made crafting - once a pass time one did with others - something we now do at home, alone, in front of the TV.

So! I am starting my plan of creating a useful, engaged, hub of Montreal crafters. Here is my non-exhaustive and (hopefully) ever-expanding list of Montreal craft retailers

Ariadne's Knits (http://www.ariadneknits.com/) - knitting, crochet [Sud-Ouest]
Bonnidee (www.bonnidee.com) - scrapbooking [Pointe-Claire]
Brickpoint Needlework (http://www.brickpointneedlework.com/) - needlepoint, knitting [Westmount]
Jeannette's (http://www.jeannettes.com/contact.html) - needlepoint, embroidery [Snowdon]
Boutique Jennimar & Sheila (http://www.jennimar.com/) - needlepoint, emroidery, crochet, knitting [Dorion]
L'Oiseau Bleu (http://www.loiseaubleu.com/iiix/home/) - general craft [Laval, Montreal, St-Hubert]
Mouline Yarns (http://www.moulineyarns.com/) - knitting, crochet [Sud-Ouest]
Omer de Serres (http://www.deserres.ca/) - general craft chain [various locations QC, ON]
Scrapbook Star (www.scrapbookstar.ca) - scrapbooking [NDG]
Sial (http://www.sial-canada.com/en/) - pottery, moulding, ceramics, copper [Laval]

If you know of a craft retailer that I've missed, please email greenstockings[at]gmail[dot]com and let me know!

Winter Fun of Awesome Craftiness

So I've joined onto two winter craft challenges:

the spins & needles Winterlude Urban Cozy project AND the Plush You! Winter Olympics Challenge

I'm very excited about both - it is, believe it or not, the first time I have participated in an online crafty community building/interaction/group project or whatever. How very unlike me. My decision at the beginning of this year to "do more" with my time and my energy is definitely a motivating factor here - instead of thinking that participating in things like this would be fun and something I should do, you know, at some point, I just signed up for the Olympics challenge, and have knitting buddy Kim to craft-along on the Urban Cozy project.

I have yet to be assigned my category for plushie making (which will either be Figure Skating, Skiing, Opening Ceremonies, Bobsleigh, or a MADE UP SPORT) - but I'm thinking about ways that I can incorporate some of my own views about the Vancouver Olympics into this crafting. (I'm very embarrassed and dismayed by the way that Canada, a supposedly "nice" place is handling the hosting of these games, by doing things like screwing over the native peoples and making the following illegal: homelessness, taking pictures, and 'public negative messages' (ie - protest signs saying negative things about the Olympics) - for more, please ignore the general crimes against the internet of 2010 Watchdog site.)

Knitting friend Kim is the one who pointed me to the Urban Cozy project, and while I was planning to make a standard sized cozy (30" x 8" - small scarf size) in a vaguely fishnet pattern out of truly atrocious mauve baby yarn (cognitive dissonance, much?), I may go her route and pull out the size 20 knitting needles* and knit up a few strands of stash yarn together.

Which reminds me, as well as knitting a cozy, I was thinking of writing to the folks at spins & needles and finding out what their schedule of events will be at Winterlude, since I am planning on coming to Ottawa for the last weekend (Feb 19 - 21) - and maybe I will be able to help at one of their workshops. Ok - going to do that now!

*no, it's not your imagination, they do look like they could be dildos...