Cailín Mills & Knitmonton
Kick and Purl: Providing A Safe Place To Play One Stitch At A Time
kick 'n' purl knit
Armed with knitting needles and a desire to give back to the community, Cailín Mills and Knitmonton are working hard to make sure every child has a place to belong.
In particular, they are making sure kids have a place to belong on the field and a safe place to play. While she doesn’t play sports, Mills is a big baseball fan and her favourite team is the Toronto Blue Jays. She is a strong believer that sports and knitting aren’t actually that much different. It’s about belonging to a community.
“It’s giving that opportunity to those who just don’t have that,” she explains. “It’s some place that someone can go to, that they can send their children to, and that they know it’s a safe place. That’s probably the big thing: it’s a safe place to play.”
That’s what helped Mills decide to partner with Free Footie and sponsor a soccer team.
Mills learned of Free Footie in what she considers standard. “Like many, I was one of the followers of CBC Morning and then hearing about it on the radio, and just kind of thought that’s a great idea.”
In 2019, Team Kick and Purl was formed. Mills, who at the time was recovering from a major surgery, wasn’t content to sit around and do nothing. With her iPad, Mills started reaching out to people or as she describes it, bugging people.
“That gave me something to do when I was recovering on the couch,” says Mill. “‘Hey we’re gonna do this team, so who wants to?’ It was all I could do.”
Official Kick ‘n’ Purl Logo!
It was a massive success, and within a month the crowdsourced team had raised all the money required to sponsor a team at Free Footie.
The team name combines soccer and knitting. “We had to have somewhere in there a knitting term,” she says. “It all came together as Kick and Purl, so instead of knit and purl it’s kick and purl.” The term purl refers to a knitting stitch which makes a “bump” in the front of the stitch. A knit stitch mirrors a purl stitch, but the “bump” is made on the back of the stitch.
Yarn graffiti
One way that Mills and Knitmonton are able to create funds for sponsorship is through themed street art called yarn bombing. “Basically it’s yarn graffiti,” explains Mills. “You might see some flowers that are attached to fences and those kinds of things. It's a form of street art, but it doesn’t damage property. We have fun and the whole idea is that you’re incognito and don’t know who is doing it.”
While this street art set up may be Knitmonton’s best kept secret, it’s no secret that what they give back to the community, in knitting and in sport, is their greatest asset.
By: Ashley Orich
kick 'n' purl team
kick 'n' purl team photo
