Tag: canadian fashion

The Window Toque – Prairie Scene

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This toque explores the colors, and instantly recognizable horizontal lines of a prairie scene.

The Window Toque concept was created as a way to expand creativity in knitwear pieces.

The “window” portion of the toque provides a venue to explore a scene or concept artistically.

To view pieces currently available from W1 Hundred, please click to visit our SHOP .

This toque is constructed of Canadian produced and milled wool.

The color of the wool is created through dyeing by hand in natural dyes.

The “window” portion of the piece employs zero-waste practices.

Bull Skinny Scarf

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The “Bull Skinny Scarf” was created as an ode to Western Canada.

The bull motif was designed as a tribute to western culture; that of ranches, rodeos and stampedes.

The scarf’s narrower width, and longer length, allows for the scarf to be worn in multiple ways. A great scarf for those who like to experiment with clothes, and a distinctive way to add a unique touch to both dressy and casual outfits.

This one-of-a-kind knit scarf features hand dyeing with botanical dyes, proving that environmentally conscious fashion can also be beautiful.

To purchase the “Bull Skinny Scarf”, and our current offering of other pieces, please visit our online shop .

The Skinny Scarf – Striped with Gold Thread

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Have you ever wondered where inspiration for a piece comes from? The initial idea for the “Skinny Scarf – Striped with Gold Thread” began on the west coast of Canada. As I watched the sail boats, and walked around marinas, I noticed a reoccurring theme of blue and white stripes, especially in shirts and sweaters that the boat owners were wearing.

I started to think about how nautical stripes could be done differently. An item different from shirts and sweaters. A creative approach to the stripe colors. The “Skinny Scarf – Striped with Gold Thread” is what grew out of this thought process.

A skinny scarf seemed like a perfect way to take nautical stripes, and build them into an accessory. Next, I chose the fibre to use; I decided upon Tencel, which provides deep shades when dyed by hand in natural dyes, and also has a silky feel.

The next design choice was with regards to color. Instead of staying with the classic blue and white, a darker stripe was also added. For fun, the whole piece also had gold thread added to the construction, for a bit of sparkle. A long fringe added a finishing touch.

It is quite interesting to see how a piece can evolve from inspiration, to finished piece.

For pieces currently available, please click HERE to visit our online SHOP.

Open Studio Door – Prep Work – February 19, 2022

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Our “Open Studio Door” posts are a way to invite readers into our studio. This is a way to share daily studio activities, and all the methods involved in creating our pieces.

Today in the studio, prep work for creating knitwear, and woven pieces, is the focus.

Every piece begins life with un-dyed yarn. The main fibres we currently work with are wool. alpaca, cotton, bamboo and Tencel.

The yarn is initially knit into blanks in preparation for dyeing. This method may be time consuming, but eliminates dealing with knots and tangles in the dyeing process.

Once the blanks are complete, the dyeing process commences.

Usually dyeing is completed over multiple days, sometimes weeks.

Once the blanks have been dyed, they are then stripped back to yarn form, in preparation for knitting or weaving.

Prep work can take as long as the actual knitting or weaving process, depending on how fine the yarn is, or how complex the dyeing process is.

To view our pieces currently available, please click HERE.

Open Studio Door – Iron Dip – February 17, 2022

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Iron Dip

Our “Open Studio Door” posts are a way to invite readers into our studio. This is a way to share daily studio activities, and all the methods involved in creating our pieces.

Today in the studio we are completing iron dips. When botanically dyed fibres are dipped in an iron bath, it “saddens” the color. Colors become darker and grey.

Today, I am working with bamboo, dyed in cutch.

The fibre goes into the iron bath as a mid brown tone, and emerges, as dark brown.

Iron dips are an incredibly useful tool when working with botanical dyes and cellulose fibres. It creates the opportunity to create darker colors, which is challenging to accomplish with natural dyeing.

To view our pieces currently available, please click HERE.