As the Toronto Blue Jays get ready for the World Series to begin Friday night, one fan has travelled from the United Kingdom to show her support for their playoff run.
“This is a big moment for the Jays and it’s a big moment for me, so I had to come home,” Karla Courtney said.
Having grown up in Toronto while spending summers in Newfoundland, the Blue Jays represent ‘home’ for Courtney.
“I think I want to be in Toronto for the energy, right? It’s really exciting; these things don’t happen that often,” she said.
Courtney shifted her sleep schedule while across the pond to make sure she never missed a Jays playoff moment.
To keep herself busy while watching nerve-wracking games in the middle of the night, she began knitting to ease the tension.
Her first project: a Blue Jays sweater for her good luck charm knitted lobster to wear — but that wasn’t enough of a challenge.
Courtney challenged herself with knitting a Blue Jays post-season sweater — which could only be worked on during game days.
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“However far they go, I’ll have something to commemorate the season,” Courtney said.
She began the retro-style sweater during Game 4 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees, documenting her progress on social media.
Each section of work carries memories of different moments along the playoff run. One moment involving a mustard stain from a game.
“We did lose those two games, so that represents a hard point,” she said while pointing to the Blue Jays logo she’d crafted.
For Courtney, knitting keeps her present and grounds her emotions during stressful innings.
“I’m only allowed to knit during game days; I haven’t broken that rule,” she explained. “I knit on the flight on the way, but that was a game day, so that’s fine. I’m kind of following the progress of the team. So, hopefully the longer they go, the longer I go.”
Dedicated to her craft, she kept up the project while in the Rogers Centre for games 6 and 7 of the ALCS.
She remembers the game-changing moment when George Springer got the home run that gave the Blue Jays the lead in Game 7.
“I had the sweater in my hands and I thought, ‘Now I’m going to get mascara on it,’” she remembered. “I was crying, it was so exciting and everyone was cheering and it was really, really incredible.”
Courtney plans to stick around Toronto as long as it takes to see the Blue Jays take the World Series.
“I am not going anywhere, of course not, no,” she said. “I’ll just keep changing my ticket, I don’t care.”
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