Who is Kat?

by Katherine McLeod on Oct 30 2024

Hi fellow craft and fibre arts enthusiasts,

I want to take this moment to introduce myself and give insight into why I decided to open a local yarn and craft supply shop. Especially since it isn’t often you hear a peer say “I am going to own a local yarn shop!”.

My name is Katherine and I use to describe my identity as being a team Canada competitive trampolinist. Yup, that’s right I spent more than 80% of my life in the gymnastics realm. I had to leave due to long-term concussion symptoms caused by a car accident. Bye-bye identity. I am still very active in outdoor activities but my flipping days are over.
It is a strange experience to no longer know how to describe yourself or who you are. Thankfully, I had always used art and crafts as a way to decompress from trainings and I began to heavily lean into it.

My first skein

I really went down the rabbit hole around 2018 - 2019, discovering my first ever alpaca blend based sock yarn. It was the softest most beautiful squish I had ever experienced! My life of shopping at Michael’s was severely altered. I had discovered the beautiful world of high-end sustainably sourced, eco-friendly yarn that came in an array of colours and was officially ‘yarn-over’. tee hee. won-over, yarn-over, get it. Bad pun, I have a lot of them. Being able to create something from minimal material is satisfying beyond belief. It gives me the same rush a competition use too. The only other thing that gives me a bigger rush is when I’m chasing my dogs after they sneak out of the house and head for the street…

I use to work in the sports industry for a while as I wasn’t ready to give up on sports, but leave it to a toxic work environment to kill any love that might still have existed. It also killed my nervous system causing me to experience major burn out and eventually a physical response of paralysis in my neck. Due to this I went on disability and took the time to focus on my health, my identity, what I really want from life, and A LOT of knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and cross stitch.

While undergoing the rollercoaster that is depression and anxiety, self discovery, and healing my brain was trying to sort out what is it that I enjoyed from the careers I’ve done. Leadership, A/B testing, strategy development, community, and procurement. I began volunteering for the City of Oshawa and the Toronto Knitters Guild to exercise these skills, began to lean on my friends and family more, and dreaming about the perfect craft room. I didn’t stop at a craft room, I started to dream about a local yarn shop bringing my love for my city and crafts together, and with instigation from my friends. A few months ago I decided to stop dreaming and make it come true. Behold the creation of Kat’s Craft Corner!

The next big question, do I have a shop dog? Or cat? or…

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