Do you want beautiful, free patterns? Sign up for our newsletter and get a free pattern! Follow us on Instagram @EweKnitTO and tag us, we love seeing what you’re making! And while you’re here join our community in our Ravelry Group to join our knitalongs and share your projects.

Claudia Quintanilla has always loved playing with yarn. She was taught to knit by the nuns of her all-girls school in El Salvador. She later emigrated to Canada where she found the colder climate to be the perfect setting for knitting. However, it wasn’t until a family issue kept Claudia at home and away from her PhD studies for several years that she truly found solace in her fibre-arts hobby. In 2012, she opened the yarn and fabric store, Eweknit in Toronto.

Canada’s North has an austere beauty. Nature is everywhere: both in the brilliant colors of an alpine lake and the subtle shades of the forest. While I am captivated by vibrant colors, it is the permanency and symmetry of the subtle that is the basis of my designs. The harmony of nature, and the importance of celebrating and conserving nature, are integral to my design philosophy. I am drawn to the colors and patterns that are abundant in nature. And to the importance of using region-specific yarns as well as dyes that do not harm nature. After all, harmony isn’t possible if we harm the very thing that inspires us.