Dear Stephanie 2020

Dear Stephanie,

I remember the exact moment the world shifted. 

Ron, Victoria and I had just finished a photo shoot, were sitting in a restaurant, and got the news that Knit City Montréal had been cancelled. In that moment I knew it was the beginning of a landslide of cancellations and isolation that would affect people we love and care about.

And that it would affect the Bike Rally. My heart stopped. 

Keeping a non-profit going is difficult in the best of times, but in the past few years, fundraising efforts have become more creative to inspire more people to gather and socialize and connect to raise funds. These are all things we are no longer allowed to do.

All spring, one of us would mention "we need to figure out something for Bike Rally". We all separately started thinking about what the colourway should be. Without really talking to each other. It's a tradition. It's our way to support the efforts of #teamknit who each year fundraise for the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation, an organization that enables so many others to live their best lives. We've been supporting Team Knit since before it was called Team Knit. Beginning in 2012, we've raised well over $10,000 for PWA through our bike rally yarn sales...most of that in the past 2 years.

So when we found out that you, Ken, Pato and Cameron were riding in your own version of the Bike Rally, we wanted to keep that momentum going. It was Ron's idea to ask each of you for two colours you like, to give us a palette to work within.

Pato gave us these:

Cam gave us purple and silver.

You gave us these:

"yellowish hostas that aren’t quite getting enough sun"

"an orangey-coral-apricot like the darkest part of “Free Spirit” roses"

   

And Ken? Well I'll let him speak for himself--

"I absolutely cannot do this. All I can say is that that I like deep colours more than pastels, and I think mauve has no place in yarn."
(famous last words, Ken...famous last words...bwahahahaha)

I think we've put more care and deliberation into this year's colourway than ever before. Lots of tests to get exactly what we wanted. Trying new techniques, failing, and letting those fails feed into the next version we tried. 

In the end, we came up with a main colour, and 5 colours of mini skeins, available as a set, or individually, to pair with the main as "heels and toes".

The main colour is speckled with each of the mini skein colours on a light asphalt/grey background. The colours "social distancing" on the yarn, as you four are doing on the road.

Pato's blue

Purple for Cam

A bright and strong (surprisingly difficult to photograph) coral/orange/pink for you

A deep blue/green/grey for Ken. Made with real mauve.

And for us--because if we can't be on the t-shirt this year, we're going to put ourselves on the yarn--our logo green

There are secret bits as well. There's a little of Pato's grass green in Ken's blue. Your hosta green is in our logo green. Cam's silver in the background. And each of the colours has just enough mauve to feed my smart-ass/world domination plans for the universe. Together, but separate.

2020 will be the year that broke our hearts beyond anything we could have imagined even 6 months ago. Virtual events don't make up for seeing each other several times a year outside of our own province. 

But we are here to do what we can to keep traditions going. To make sure the people and organizations we care about are able to continue to do their work. 

Love, 

Kim, Ron and Victoria