The virtual attic room is full of knitting treasures. This is no dusty unused place of storage, but one with sunlit skylights, gleaming wooden floors and old-fashioned settees - reupholstered in historical fabrics of course! - where visitors can sit and study beautiful knits and text on knits - both historical and contemporary. There is delicate knitted lace and colourful South American knitting in The Museum for Textiles Collection; colourful and fine gauge ch'ullus from Catherine Vardy's South American hat collection; and some of the contemporary designs of Lucy Neatby which draw on historical references.

Ethnic Knitting

Catherine Vardy's Ch'ullu Collection

The colourful and finely knit ch'ullus of South America are inspiring to knitters for their rich motifs and varying gauges of 10 to 22 sts per inch. Catherine Vardy, the 'travelling, knitting biologist' presents some of her collection of these wonderful hats and entertains us with her adventures when buying them in the marketplace of Potosi, Boliva.

Historical Knitting

The Museum for Textiles, a selection of beautiful knitted articles from their collection to both awe and inspire those who admire the fine gauge and workmanship in historical knitting. Included are a gossamer light knitted lace shawl from Russia, a delicate lace tablecloth of doilies and colourful fine gauge South American ch'ulla hats and sleeves.

Contemporary Knitting

Contemporary works which draw on historical and ethnic sources for inspiration. For those who enjoy learning about designing, these are contemporary designs created from historical inspiration. These sources of inspiration spring from older knitted textiles; other textile arts such as weaving, embroidery and batik; and other visual historical and ethnic resources.The textiles and rich visual designs of other cultures and other times present a palette of colours, shapes, textures and stories for knitters to draw upon.

The work of Lucy Neatby, a Canadian Designer who resides in Dartmouth NS, is featured in this section.
As part of her design work, Lucy draws inspiration from museums, historical crafts and ethnic textile sources, to create her richly textured and colourful knits. Two designs are featured here: the Macedonian Sweater and The Mi'kmac Cardigan. (shown here is a side section of the Macedonian Sweater, with an unusual cable and fringe border and beautiful embroidered motifs)