Chester River Knitting Company

My late wife, Beth, and I started creating garments for men and women 35 years ago, hand-knitting design prototype and production work for Perry Ellis and other of the New York designer-types. After 10 years of the pressures of designer knitting, we moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the rural peninsula across the Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore. We're blessed with close proximity to the Atlant

ic Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay, and the historic Chester River. Beth and I began a retail store, where we made and sold sweaters for men, women, and children directly to people like you. We also did custom sizing and custom design work for many of our customers, who ordered from us again and again. I closed the shop 8 years ago, due to the stress of having a store. Now, I miss knitting, so at 74 years of age, I've dusted off my hand-operated machines and am making individual sweaters once again from my home. I knit in 100% natural fibers only: Several wools, cotton, spun silk, alpaca, cashmere, and a cotton-flax blend. I get the biggest charge in the world out of making a sweater for a real person -- someone whose name I know. I will design sweaters according to your own measurements and style specifications, upon request. Many of the yarns come in a variety of colors. If you don't see what you want, just ask! If you would like a style that you don't see, call me up and let's talk about it. I love to design something that is perfect and special for each customer. I use four hand-operated knitting machines in my smoke-free home. Two double-bed machines knit ribbing in several weights. One flat-bed machine is 7-cut, and knits a lighter-weight sweater, which can be worn all year long and is light enough to go under a jacket. The other flat-bed machine is 4-cut, and knits a wonderful winter-weight wool sweater or a cotton sweater you can wear 9 months out of the year. One of the double-bed machines was manufactured in Switzerland in 1942. The other double-bed machine came from a sweater mill in the South Bronx that made high school/college letter sweaters. This machine was manufactured in Brooklyn sometime in the 1890s. The machines that I use to knit are very simple machines, so any of the design elements in the sweaters are done by moving stitches around on the needles of the machines by hand.