Cerelli & Co.’s organic hand knit scarves

Cerelli & Co.'s locally made hand-knit scarves are incredibly soft and chic.

By Janet Gyenes / October 21, 2009

Credit: Granville

Granville

There’s nothing better than the feeling of a soft hand-knit scarf made locally from cotton, alpaca wool and bamboo

When is a scarf more than a scarf?

When such an ordinary object that is supposed to simply wrap its wearer in warmth also imparts fuzzy do-gooder feelings because it’s local, handmade, crafted from surreal soft fibre, and a percentage of each purchase goes to charitable organizations.

Samantha Lefort, an industrial design student, needed some busywork for her hands during her daily train commute. With bamboo knitting needles in tow, she reverted to the tried-and-true knit-one-purl-two to create her decadent scarves – a multifunctional wardrobe staple (wear it low like a shawl, or wrapped up cosy around your neck) – that she now sells under her Cerelli & Co. banner.

A dedicated vintage shopper, Lefort says she often found herself scrutinizing labels trying to pin down where the products were made and unravel the mysterious mix of synthetic fabrics and dyes disguised in a blur of buzzwords.

So when it came to sourcing yarns for her scarves, she opted for organic cotton, alpaca wool and bamboo. Loose, chunky knits make these scarves a year-round choice, and you’ll find them in on-trend colours like Magenta, Lagoon, and Chartreuse.