INSPIRATION: Jen Anisef of craft news blog Toronto Craft Alert, who tirelessly supports the DIY craft culture’s redefinition of traditional handiwork. (See: guerrilla knitters, the upcoming documentary Handmade Nation and Iris Häussler’s “Honest Threads” exhibit currently showing at Honest Ed’s.) “I think it’s powerful that people are taking their work so seriously and building an alternative economy,” says Anisef of the women she meets through the City of Craft events she co-organizes. “It’s introduced a lot of women to entrepreneurialism.”

Etsy lurking shouldn’t replace the face-to-face time (and saved coin) of offline crafty spaces. Try your hand at a snap-coin-purse class March 23 at The Workroom (1340 Queen W., www.theworkroom.ca). $50.



Is Orly Cogan’s embroidery (pictured above) third-wave craftivism? “She Will Always Be Younger Than Us,” an exhibit of feminist works, includes art by Cogan and finds inspiration in Judy Chicago’s thread-as-brushstroke ethos. Local artist/curator Allyson Mitchell gives a tour of the exhibit and the accompanying Chicago retrospective March 11, 6:30pm, at the Textile Museum of Canada (55 Centre, 416-599-5321, www.textilemuseum.ca).



The Topshops of the world have already appropriated crafty woodland-owl motifs. (Psst: the city’s fashion-forward Twitterers predict a Topshop YYZ arrival in six to nine months.) Stay ahead by purchasing Canadian handmade items at goodEGG Industries (www.goodeggshop.com), an online shop co-curated by Anisef. Lee Meszaros’ “Being Proud as a Peacock” merit badge for adults, $25.