Mary Maxim Roots Cowichan Sweater Pattern Review

Mary Maxim Roots Sweater. Photo by Julia Konovalov

Cowichan style sweaters have always inspired me, and I always wanted to knit one for myself. So when I saw this modernized version of an old Mary Maxim pattern, I purchased it as a kit from the Mary Maxim website back in 2016. It is not available as kit any more, but you can still purchase the pattern from here. It is designed for the bulky yarn weight and uses four yarn colours: grey, black, off white and red. There are different sizes available from S to XL.

Mary Maxim Roots Sweater

The pattern itself looks like a graph and uses the fair isle knitting technique (colours are switched at the back). The sweater consists out of five pieces in total. It took me over a year to knit it (with a lot of pauses). Then about two days to put it together and weave in ends.
My sweater turned out to be very oversized. I followed the instructions for size M, but it turned out to be more like XL.
I am still very happy with this project: it was fun working on it and boy! was I happy to finish it! I haven't knitted any sweaters for myself since I was in high school, so it was nice to work on something like this again.

Mary Maxim Roots Sweater. Photo by Julia Konovalov

Roots and Mary Maxim are both old Canadian companies. Here is some additional information on their collaboration in this project.

Did you knit or spot any cowichan style sweaters? Let me know about your experience in comments!
Lily

*All Photos are subject to copyright.*

Knitted Bunny Girl

When I first saw this amazing pattern from Little Cotton Rabbits I immediately knew that I need to knit a little bunny or two using it. So I purchased this pattern last fall and started knitting. I wanted to make two bunnies: a bunny girl and a bunny boy for Christmas. And I was too slow and did not finish this project until now - just in time for Easter :-)

Her little dress is removable unlike her shoes and tights.
The pattern is written very well and I really enjoyed following it.

What have you knitted or crocheted for Easter? Please share in comments or on my Facebook page. Please follow me on Instagram @mango_tree_crafts where I post almost every day showing my progress in my current projects.

Happy Easter!
Lili

Crochet pumpkin and more

Crochet Pumpkin

Fall is about pumpkin everything. So I could not resist and crocheted this little pumpkin. I used this free pumpkin crochet pattern for my inspiration.

And I knitted this little pumpkin hat for a baby girl:

Knitted Pumpkin Hat

Knitted pumpkin hat

I used this free Berry hat pattern
And I am very proud of this craft pumpkin my daughter made at school:

Lets celebrate fall! :-)
Lili

Baby Knits: Booties and Hat

Knitted baby hat and crochet blanket squares

A friend of mine is expecting a baby girl in December, so I am busy knitting all kinds of pretty baby garments: a crochet baby blanket (I posted about it earlier and it's almost finished! Can't wait to show you the finished blanket), baby booties and baby hat.

Knitted Slipper Boots

Knitted slipper boots

Fall has arrived here in southern Ontario, and we already had a couple of cold and rainy days. So when a lady on my local Facebook group posted about similar knitted slipper boots recently and her post got more then 100 comments, I got so inspired that I needed to make them.

I knitted them with Red Heart brand bulky yarn.

I used this free pattern by Yuko Nakamura to make the slipper part. And I used this free pattern by Garnstudio to knit the cuffs.

The good thing about them is - they would fit any size from pre-teen to ladies size 9 as they are very stretchy. I added two chocolate colour buttons as a little finishing touch. Let me know how you like them :-)

Lili
*Please do not re-publish photos as your own.*

Knitted Flower Bookmark

Knitted bookmark with link to pattern

During last week I felt melancholic and I felt like knitting :-)

I was thinking about the difference between crocheting and knitting for me personally. These crafts are so similar and different at the same time.

And I was finally able to verbalize it: knitting is a much slower process, more personal, whimsical, an act of meditation and relaxation. Crocheting in my personal world is much more energetic, faster, straightforward, optimistic.

So maybe that is why I like to crochet with optimistic cotton and knit with whimsical wool? :-) I also found myself choosing the colors accordingly to the above attributes.