The Blue Brick | Photography and Handcrafts by Shireen Nadir

Toronto has got a gorgeous new yarn store, and it’s right in the middle of downtown; Ewe Knit is located in Mirvish Village, just one block south, and one block west of Bathurst and Bloor.

The front features a comfy coffee shop stocked with goodies.

The inside… oh the inside! It explodes with colour and fibery goodness from a refreshing range of brands that are not commonly found in Toronto. I immediately fell in love with some heavenly stuff called “Zen Garden Yarns”.

All the staples are here too; Cascade, Koigu and Noro grace the shelves. My yarn hankering was drawn to the wall of IndigoDragonfly, where I bought yarn specifically because the colourway was call ‘People Are Extremely Stupid Today. I Cannot Talk To Any More Of Them’.

Alongside the IndigoDragonfly goodness are Malabrigo and (be still my beating heart) Sweet Georgia. No longer do I need to fly to the other side of the country to get my hands on this wonderful stuff.

That doesn’t even cover the range – check out their site for a full list of their products! The location is amazing, the selection is amazing, and I haven’t even gotten to the staff yet. Claudia, the owner, is sweet, friendly and runs the business with a strong focus on local talent and fair trade yarns. Here is an excerpt from their website so you can see what you’re supporting when you shop here:

Eweknit has its roots in the fair trade community. Claudia, the creative force behind Eweknit, learned to knit at an early age when a nun at the school she attended asked her to stay after school and to accompany her to knit. The lessons about the joy of knitting and the importance of communal activities stuck with her. Seven years ago, Claudia helped found, and continues to work, with a single mother’s Co-operative in El Salvador that that produces about 100,000 fairly traded t-shirts every year for sale in Canada.

This emphasis on fair trade carries over to Eweknit as we try to carry, promote and sell as many fairly traded products as possible. We carry yarns from Italy that are produced by small family businesses, from co-operatives in South America, and we are especially proud of our Canadian dyers such as Indigo Dragonfly, Koigu, and Zen Yarn Garden, who demonstrate the beauty and creativity of our local community.

I have more news about this yarn store – my first design collaboration will be with Claudia. She’s given me a skein of DK weight Zen Yarn Garden to design a kit from – I’m swatching right now and I’m so excited! Stay tuned to see where our creative collaboration leads us :)