This simple and unique hand-knitted design was inspired by knitting boot cuffs and leg warmers as gifts for the designer’s friends and family, after seeing these unique cows grazing in the fields on a visit to Holland.
The cow featured in the knitted design is a unique Dutch variety called “Lakenvelder,” usually called a “belted cow” in English. The name Lakenvelder derives from the word “Laken,” meaning a bedsheet, referring to the white band passing around the body, and “veld,” or field – and a herd of these cows really do look like bedsheets standing in a field. This belt or sheet consists of pure white hair extending from the shoulders to the hip bones, and encircles the body completely. The cattle are otherwise black (or occasionally red/brown). In their original form they were horned and raised as a dairy breed.

By the 1930s Lakenvelder cows had dwindled in the Netherlands, and the Herd Book was closed. In the 1970s a trust was set up to save them from extinction in their own country. However, the breed had been exported to the USA as early as 1838, and spread to both Canada and Mexico.

This simple-to-knit project is fun to make, as well as educational. The one-of-a-kind hand-knitted cow boot cuffs will keep your legs warm - and they’ll keep snow out of your boots!