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Books > Health, Home & Family > Handicrafts > Rural crafts
Knitting is a booming pastime, enjoying a resurgence of interest,
spawning books, movies, a brisk online trade in wool and knitted
goods -- even trade fairs. In Canada, Cottage Craft has long held a
strong reputation for its fine wool, dyed to the palette of the
local landscape, and the fine craftsmanship of the women who weave
and knit its quality materials. Behind Cottage Craft is the story
of a woman of vision and remarkable resolve. Grace Helen Mowat
looked upon traditional rural crafts -- knitting, weaving, and rug
hooking -- as cash crops for the straitened farm women of Charlotte
County, New Brunswick. In 1911, unmarried and with limited means,
she commissioned a handful of St. Andrews women to make rugs
according to her designs, which were then sent to Montreal. The
Arts and Crafts movement was in full swing -- the rugs sold
quickly. This is the story of how Grace Helen Mowat built Cottage
Craft into a burgeoning home-grown business that continues to
attract customers the world over.
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