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Cowichan Sweaters

Canada is celebrating 150 years of existence and as a part of the celebration it is sharing with the country tidbits about its history including this story regarding the Cowichan sweater.  The article covers five little known facts about this unique sweater and is worth a read.

I have written about this First Nations sweater in the past here and here.  The history of the Cowichan sweater is a story told often about peoples who have crafting skills that become financially viable.  The wool and the techniques used in knitting the Cowichan sweater fascinates me but having the story written up in the Globe and Mail, a nationally distributed paper, gives a tribute to both the Cowichan nation and to Sylvia Olsen, the author quoted in the piece.


Image from sa-cinn.com
Photo from shortlist.com

The first photo is of an actual Cowichan sweater.  One can see the quality of the wool and the hand made look of it.  The Big Lebowski referred to in the article is featured in the second photo.   It is pretty easy to see the differences.  Although this sweater has become world renown, its roots are right here on British Columbia, on Vancouver Island.

On another front, we let the kittens into a new room yesterday, one where several stuffed animals live.  They are fussy about the type of toys they play with, meaning if a toy is too big to fit in their mouths it is unused.  So image our surprise when after about an hour they were found with a life-sized (for them) stuffed golden retriever in their bed.  They had managed to knock it from a shelf, carry it across a carpeted room, up one step and then across a hardwood floor.  Paul tells me it was at least 20 feet.  After that workout they needed to rest.

Being little can be hard work

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