Cowichan knitting facts for kids
Cowichan knitting is a special way of knitting that comes from the Cowichan people. They live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. You might know their famous, thick, patterned sweaters. These are called Cowichan sweaters.
Cowichan knitting is a mix of different cultures' ideas. It combines European knitting styles with the spinning and weaving methods of the Salish people. Over time, new tools, ways of knitting, and designs were created from this mix.
Cowichan sweaters are sometimes called Siwash sweaters or Indian sweaters. The word Siwash comes from an old trade language called Chinook Jargon. It comes from a French word meaning 'wild'. Some people feel this word is not very nice to use.
Contents
A Look at Cowichan Sweaters
How They Started
Before European Contact
Before Europeans arrived, the Coast Salish people, including the Cowichan, made blankets, leggings, and straps. They used wool from mountain goats and hair from dogs, along with other fibers. They spun the wool using a spindle and whorl. Blankets were woven on a special two-bar loom. We don't know much about how these items were made or used back then. But we do know that knitting or knitting needles were not used at that time.
Learning European Knitting
Sheep were brought to Vancouver Island in the 1850s. This meant there was a lot more wool available. Around the same time, the first European settlers came to the Cowichan Valley. Cowichan women likely started knitting soon after.
The Sisters of St. Ann were missionaries who came to the Cowichan Valley in 1864. They started a school for Indigenous children. They taught the Cowichan women how to knit things like socks and mitts. Records show that students' knitting was shown at local fairs and even at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.
After learning to make socks and mitts, Cowichan women began knitting sweaters. These early sweaters were often one color and had a turtle-neck. They were knitted in a circle with no seams, like European styles of that time. Some knitters used a raised stitch, possibly inspired by the clothing of British fishermen in the area.
Developing the Cowichan Sweater Style
Over time, Cowichan knitters started adding patterns to their sweaters. They used a method similar to the Fair Isle technique. Many believe Jerimina Colvin, a settler from the Shetland Islands, taught patterned knitting. She came to Cowichan Station in 1885 and raised sheep. She probably started teaching knitting in the 1890s. She added patterns as she learned them from other Scottish settlers.
Another idea is that the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Ann brought knitting to the West Coast. They had opened schools in Victoria and Duncan. Knitting became part of the lessons for Indigenous girls in the 1860s.
Unlike Fair Isle sweaters, Cowichan sweaters are always hand-knitted. They use thick, handspun, one-ply wool in natural colors like cream, black, and grey. This makes them warm and bulky. Classic Cowichan sweaters from the 20th century were often white or undyed. They were coat-style, with buttons or a zipper, and a shawl collar. They often had Indigenous or animal designs.
How They Are Made
Wool and How It's Prepared
Cowichan sweaters are always made from sheep's wool. Certain types of sheep, like Dorset and Hampshire, do well in the coastal climate. The wool from these local sheep makes sweaters that are warm and light for their size.
Preparing the wool takes several steps. The oldest way Cowichan women processed wool involved six steps: washing, drying, hand-teasing, hand-carding, drawing out, and loosely spinning by hand to make a roving. Then it was tightened with a spindle and whorl. Today, many of these steps are done by machines or skipped. Some knitters still buy shorn fleeces and do most of the traditional preparation. But most buy wool that is already washed and carded from a mill.
If knitters get wool directly from sheep, they first remove the natural oils by leaving it in the rain. Then they pull the wool apart. All wool must be washed in warm soapy water, rinsed, and hung to dry. Yellowish wool is left in the sun to bleach. Washing is usually done in the summer. Knitters hand-tease the dry wool to loosen tangled fibers. This helps dirt and twigs fall out and gets the wool ready for carding.
Spinning the Wool
Cowichan knitters spin wool in three ways: with a Salish spindle and whorl, with a changed sewing machine, and with a homemade spinning machine. The spindle and whorl are rarely used now.
The Cowichan people used a very large Salish spindle. It was about four feet long and used for spinning mountain goat wool and dog hair for weaving. The whorl, a round disc, was about eight inches wide. Many old Salish spindle whorls had beautiful designs.
Homemade spinning machines started appearing in the 1890s. There are two types of Cowichan wheels. Both have a foot treadle (a pedal you push with your foot) and a pulley. They also have a large opening for the yarn and big hooks.
One type of wheel has the wooden spinning part placed on a treadle sewing machine table. The spinner uses their foot to power it. Their left hand pulls out the wool, and their right hand guides the yarn into the opening. The second type of wheel is fully homemade. It also uses a foot treadle, but the spinner faces the spinning part directly. Today, most spinning machines are motorized. The special spinning heads designed by First Nations were copied by companies in other countries because crafts became popular in the 1960s. These adapted spinning wheels are now called Bulky or Indian Head spinners.
The Knitting Process
Learning to knit sweaters is a family tradition. Children often start by helping prepare the wool. They begin knitting mitts and socks around age ten. Most knitting is done by women. Men often help by making or fixing the spinning machines and helping with wool preparation. They also help sell the finished items.
Once the wool is ready, knitting can begin. In the past, needles were made from whale bone, deer bone, telephone wire, bamboo chopsticks, and wood. Today, knitters mostly use plastic or metal needles that are easy to find and not expensive. The needle sizes range from 4–7.5mm, depending on the thickness of the handspun yarn.
To make a sweater, the knitter starts stitches in the usual way, dividing them evenly onto at least eight double-pointed needles. The number of needles changes based on the sweater's size and yarn thickness. Knitters always work in a circle for a pullover sweater. For a cardigan (one that opens in the front), they knit back and forth in one piece. After dividing the stitches, the knitter makes a ribbed band, then adds more stitches and continues with plain knitting. Pockets are often knitted in.
Designs are added in two ways. The simplest is a full color change for a whole row, often used in the waistband, cuffs, and collar. Since there are many natural wool colors now, knitters don't usually dye their wool. Larger designs are made using the two-color or Fair Isle knitting technique. In this method, the color not being used is carried along the back of the work.
Before reaching the armholes, the knitter might add a few stitches for extra room. At the armholes, the knitting is split into equal stitches for the back and front. About five stitches from the front and five from the back are put on a safety pin. The knitter then splits the front in two, holding four middle stitches on a safety pin for the collar base. The back is knitted straight up from the armholes. The fronts are knitted to the same height, with some stitches removed at the neck for shaping. The shoulders are knitted together. The remaining stitches at the back of the neck are held for the collar.
Each knitter has her own way of making a shawl collar. They might use garter stitch, basket stitch, or ribbing. They can use one color or add stripes. A common way is to pick up two of the four base stitches. They start on one side and work up the neck edge, picking up a stitch from the lapel edge on each row. This makes the collar wider as they go. The top ends in line with the shoulder seam. The same is done for the other side. Then the knitter picks up stitches from the neck edge and knits back and forth, adding stitches on each row and picking up stitches from the top of the lapel. Finally, they finish the collar back. Some skilled knitters can pick up stitches all around the neckline and knit the whole collar at once, adding and removing stitches for shaping.
To knit the sleeves, the knitter picks up the front half of the armhole stitches from the safety pin. Then they pick up stitches around the sleeve front and back. Finally, they add the back half of the held stitches. Sleeves are knitted on three to five needles, depending on the garment size. The sleeve's shape depends on the needle sizes and designs. Knitters remove stitches as needed, usually at the elbow and cuff. They finish at the wrist. Knitting the sleeve directly onto the sweater, instead of attaching a separate sleeve, makes it fit better. It also makes it easy to lengthen a sleeve or fix a cuff. The actual knitting process usually takes two to three days.
Over the years, Cowichan knitters have made many items besides sweaters. They have made socks, mitts, and more recently, tuques (winter hats), tams, ponchos, slippers, and baby booties.
Designs and Patterns
Knitters likely started using Fair Isle patterns in the early 1900s. They used different shades and colors of wool. Now, they only use natural colors. So the range is limited to whites, greys, browns, and blacks. Sometimes, a mix of colors is made during the carding process. Most knitted items use only two or three colors.
In sweaters, the colors create either geometric shapes or pictures. These designs are usually placed horizontally across the middle of the sweater's body. If the main design is geometric, it's a wide band repeated on the sleeves. If it's a picture, it's usually in the center of the back. For a pullover, the same design is on the front. For a cardigan, there might be two smaller versions on either side of the front opening. There are usually geometric bands above and below the main picture, which are also repeated on the sleeves.
Most knitters collect designs. Some designs are passed down through families and friends. A few families have their own special designs. Designs are chosen only because they look nice; they don't have a hidden meaning.
The popularity of Indigenous-patterned sweaters led the Mary Maxim Company to create commercial patterns in the 1940s. Interestingly, knitters soon started using these charts themselves. They still keep their favorite designs and change them. For example, there are many different eagle designs. Knitters also create custom patterns that are not traditional. Even with all the different patterns, experienced knitters and dealers can often tell who made a sweater. This is because each knitter has a unique style, like a personal signature.
Becoming Popular
By the 1920s, people outside the Coast Salish community became interested in the sweaters. Both companies and individuals started to copy them. One famous copy came from Mary Maxim, a company started in the 1940s by Willard S. McPhedrain. Mary Maxim began as a wool mill. The business grew after McPhedrian saw a Cowichan sweater during a sales trip to British Columbia.
Today, companies like Pendleton Woolen Mills, Ralph Lauren, and Aritzia have their own versions of the Cowichan sweater design. In October 2009, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) showed their clothing line for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. It included an Olympic sweater that looked like a Cowichan design. Chief Linda Hwitsum, the chief of the Cowichan Tribes, asked HBC to address this on October 21, 2009. Because the Cowichan sweater is a registered trademark, the Cowichan Tribes looked into legal action against HBC. Meanwhile, individual Cowichan knitters planned a silent protest. Demonstrators would wear Cowichan sweaters to the Olympic torch relays in Victoria and Duncan, B.C.
Eventually, the Cowichan Tribes and HBC reached an agreement. Cowichan knitters were given a chance to sell their own sweaters at the downtown Vancouver HBC store, alongside the copied ones.
