Knitting sports fan breaks out the needles again for Oilers’ playoff run

As the Oilers face elimination in the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday, one woman will be watching from the U.K., while knitting an Oilers sweater.

Karla Courtney isn’t exactly an Edmonton Oilers fan.

“I’m not not an Oilers fan," she says, when asked.

Definitely, she’s a Blue Jays fan, having grown up in Toronto. Generally, she describes herself as a live sports fan. But the Oilers’ grit and their fans’ enthusiasm may be winning her over.

“I followed the past two years because (of) seeing how close they got to the (Stanley) Cup, and then not get it. It’s more of an affinity with the Oilers because of that plight,” she told CTV News Edmonton in a recent interview.

So it didn’t take much convincing by Oilers fans who watched her knit a sweater during the Blue Jays’ World Series attempt to search for blue and orange yarn.

“When I was knitting the Jays sweater, almost only Oilers fans were reaching out to me in quite large numbers saying, ‘Can you knit a sweater for our next playoffs run?’”

Additionally, half of her family is from Newfoundland and Labrador and has lived or worked in Alberta, so the “connection felt right.”

“It’s not like I think my sweater is going to have any effect over the cup, but I just think there’s a fan base who likes to have a lot of fun and I like to have a lot of fun, too, so I’m going to join in,” Courtney said.

The rules haven’t changed: Courtney only knits during games.

Because she lives in Brighton, U.K., with her husband and 15-year-old son, that means getting up at 5 a.m. to catch the end of the games.

So far, she has finished an orange collar that is ringed with the team’s signature oil drops, and begun to wade into Edmonton lettering across the chest. Each shoulder will host a pair of hockey sticks and puck. Orange and white stripes mimicking the team’s home jerseys complete her design.

She has also knitted a blue-orange-and-white lobster – an homage to her East Coast heritage – named Clawnor McDavid after Oilers captain Connor McDavid.

Coincidentally, the orange yarn she is using from New Brunswick manufacturer Briggs and Little is called “Hunter Orange;” the Oilers’ mascot is Hunter the Lynx.

She had been pacing herself to make the project last three rounds of playoffs, but with the Oilers facing elimination Tuesday night, the sweater could go unfinished.

“Will it go to seven games?” she wondered, recalling Game 3 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, which was the second-longest game in World Series history. “With the Jays, I did not anticipate that 18-inning game, so I actually ran out of wool in it.”

“The plan,” she added, “is that it will be finished at the end of a wonderful run that hopefully ends in a cup.”

Her Jays-themed sweater was received so fondly it is now displayed in the Canadian Museum of History in Montreal.

That isn’t the goal with this Oilers sweater, although she wouldn’t say no if asked.

“I kind of want to wear this one. It looks really cool,” she told CTV News Edmonton.

“I’m here anyways with wool and needles. I always like a project. So, if the Oilers fans will have me, I’m gonna have a lot of fun with this and I hope you guys do, too.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa