I finally finished my Cowichan-inspired cardigan and I LOVE it. I used a pattern that included blank charts so that you could design your own patterns. I started with a bunch of old Mary Maxim/Buffalo wool patterns that my amazing mother scanned in for me as a base, and then designed from there. The wool is actually the old discontinued Buffalo wool (not, disappointingly, actual buffalo) that Mom scored for me in a building sale in Canada (did I mention amazing? Seriously people - that is love).
I've been fascinated with Cowichan jumpers as long as I can remember. When I was looking for design ideas, I found so many pictures of other people's jumpers that I had taken surreptitiously (and sometimes not-so-surreptitiously) on our trips to Canada. Then a few years ago I read a book that really made me love and respect these sweaters even more - Sylvia Olsen's Working with Wool. Here's the link - https://sononis.com/product/working-with-wool-by-sylvia-olsen/ - go buy it now if you haven't read it - it is amazing. She creates a history of the west coast and colonisation through wool and these sweaters and it was eye opening to say the least.
There is a history of these sweaters being usurped and stolen, knocked off and the people who make them cheated. I hemmed and hawed for awhile because I did not want to in any way join that brigade. But I am so inspired by them and I wanted to pay homage in a respectful way as well. I hope I managed to stay on the right side of that line but comments welcome as always.
The wool was a PAIN to knit with - 6 strands of unspun cloud fluff that broke as soon as you looked at it. Good luck with pulling snug for colour work, which, I may add, I knit in the traditional way of back and forth so that means stranded purl rows. ARGHHHHH (European stranded knitting like fair isle is almost always knit in the round, so no stranded purling). It was a good thing I was utterly besotted with it from day one or it would have landed up in the rubbish bin almost as quickly.
Can you tell what the creature is? I knit a test to make sure you'd be able to see it, and when I tried it out on a few people, I got responses that ran from "a chameleon" to "whale" and "some sort of fish" but the best was my friend John who looked at the sweater, looked at me, furrowed his brow and tentatively guessed, "Wood louse?" For the record it is SUPPOSED to be a salmon but I guess it can be whatever you want it to be.
And best of all? It has pockets!
In social isolation news, we walked up to the Shipwright today, the long way, around the marsh. It was sunny and windy and we felt so much better once we hit the fields. We barely saw anyone out there, and we had a pint sitting on the bank watching the tide come up. Neal didn't go into the pub at all (there's even an outside loo) so I don't think it was particularly risky. Who knows how long our pubs will stay open for? It did us a lot of good. And I'm glad I got out at least once in my swish new cardigan!
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