Cowichan knitting
form of knitting of the Cowichan people
Cowichan knitting is a form of knitting characteristic of the Cowichan people of southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The distinctively patterned, heavy-knit Cowichan sweaters, popular among British Columbians and tourists, are produced using this method.
Cowichan sweaters are also called Siwash sweaters, Indian sweaters, curling sweaters or sometimes Mary Maxim sweaters. While Cowichan is the name of a specific First Nations group, the word Siwash is borrowed from Chinook Jargon, the historic trade language of the Pacific Northwest. It is derived from sauvage (French for 'wild') and is felt by some to carry derisive connotations.
History
Development of the Cowichan sweater
Another origin theory is that the Sisters of St. Ann, a Roman Catholic institution founded in Quebec to promote the education of rural children, brought knitting to the West Coast. In 1858, four Sisters of St. Ann traveled from Montreal to Victoria to open a schoolhouse for the local children of all different races. Knitting became part of the instruction of Indigenous girls during the 1860s, both at St.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cowichan knitting” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.