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The Craft
of Art Knitting:
An Elaborate and Beautiful Process Countless hours—and often a lifetime of experience—go into the creation of our luxury fibre, art-knit garments. Only a handful of knitters in the world have the skill to transform the intricate and original designs we come up with into the exquisite wearable art that you see on our website and in our catalogues. -
The Craft
of Art Knitting:
Ancient Andean Textile Tradition The Andean knitters who knit our designs are lifelong artisans, who, like their mothers and grandmothers before them, are immersed in an ancient Andean textile tradition. Unlike factory or even cottage industry employment, hand knitting blends in beautifully with daily life in the Andes. -
The Craft
of Art Knitting:
Ancient Andean Textile Tradition Skilled hand knitters can earn an income as they travel on a train or bus, sell in the marketplace, take a break from harvesting a crop, or watch over their children at home. As such, hand knitting helps women to remain in their native villages, giving them access to cash needed for children's school books, batteries and medicine. As such, hand knitting is not only an art form in the Andes, it contributes to the preservation of native culture. -
The Craft
of Art Knitting:
An Elaborate and Beautiful Process A brilliant collaboration between these skilled knitters in Peru and our in-house designers, the first prototypes are developed in our collection colours. Once the initial design concepts are refined, it takes a knitter several weeks to finish just one of the more elaborate designs. It's magical to watch these virtuosos as they work—sometimes managing four different stitches at a time, keeping track of a multitude of yarn hues and tweeds streaming down in tiny bobbins. -
The Craft
of Art Knitting:
An Elaborate and Beautiful Process The knitters knit on fine-gauge needles, changing colours and stitches several times each row. Some of our sweaters use dozens of colours (one best seller had over 70), which is virtually unheard of in this age of mass-produced garments. Once the knitting is complete, there are literally hundreds of strands of yarn dangling inside of the garment that must be worked back into the fabric or carefully tied off, a daunting task for expert finishers. -
The Craft
of Art Knitting:
An Elaborate and Beautiful Process It too is a time-consuming process, but it is a fulfilling final stage in the caring creation of that individual, wearable work of art which can so often go on to become not just an all-time favourite but a timeless beauty, treasured from one generation to the next. Our designers and knitters put their hearts and souls into each sweater, from the first dab of colour on paper to the final tying off of each strand of precious alpaca or Peruvian pima cotton. -
The Craft
of Art Knitting:
Preserving a Cultural Tradition The superbly talented artisans who knit our art knits have taken their craft to a true art form. For over thirty years, we've been privileged to help support this small but important art knitting industry in the Andes. When you make a selection from our catalogue, not only are you choosing a beautiful piece of clothing, you are helping to preserve and perpetuate a remarkable and ancient cultural tradition. Click below for a large view: | |
