Photo credit: Chris Mason Stearns
Though knitting is a thousand-year-old craft, most knitted goods these days are made by machine. Granted goods, however, are knitted by hand: one knitter, two knitting needles, and a few skeins of yarn beside her chair. By the time our locally made garment is finished and maple wood zip pulls are attached, a knitter may have spent about 15-20 hours producing the sweater. We believe handmade sweaters have a touch of magic in them—they're rooted in tradition, and no two are ever truly identical.
Our Style
The style of our chunky-knit sweaters has been given a variety of labels, such as Fair Isle, prairie sweater, Canadian heritage sweater, "grandma sweater," Mary Maxim sweater and most commonly (and mistakenly) Cowichan sweater. All of these sweaters feature graphical designs made using stranded-knitting or intarsia techniques.
In respect to the Salish people from the Cowichan Valley of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, only their designs and crafted items are called Cowichan. Their history runs back to the turn of the last century when European settlers introduced them to knitting techniques. To this day, many Salish knitters sustain a living by knitting their original patterns.
Granted designs are clearly inspired by hand-knitted sweaters and graphics from all corners of the world. However, our true inspirations do come from growing up in the Pacific Northwest, in a climate deserving of a thick, hand-knit woolen sweater.
About Wool
Granted products are made with the highest quality 100% Canadian wool, one of Mother Nature’s true treasures. Wool is:
* a sustainably produced fibre
* breathable
* durable
* temperature regulating, so it keeps you warm when you're cold, but not too warm
* insulating even when it’s wet (an important feature in the rainy Pacific Northwest)
You can ensure a long life for your garment by dry cleaning it and by gently removing pills. Pills form when individual wool fibres rub up against each other and felt into small balls on the surface of the fabric. It's a natural and inevitable occurrence, and doesn't indicate any defect. Simply remove pills with your fingers or a commercial de-pilling device.