Cowichan hand knitted cardigan w. bronc motifs on front and back
0310801-310302
€400.00
Inspired by the Cowichan-style sweater characterized by the heavy knit, shawl collar and distinctive design, which usually includes geometric shapes or wildlife such as whales, eagles, deer, etc.
If you’re not familiar with the term Cowichan, you’re almost certainly familiar with the style. These sweaters have been worn by everyone from Steve McQueen to The Dude in The Big Lebowski. More than just chunky knits with expressive designs, however, they’ve also got some deep history.
True Cowichans are made by Coast Salish knitters in British Columbia, Canada. As the story goes, the sweater style comes out of a cultural exchange in the 1850s, between natives in the Cowichan Valley and European settlers.
Our take has a more 70s emphasis and incorporates two smaller bronc motifs on the front and one large bronc on the back, to add a more western lean to it. Instead of the zipped front commonly used for this sweater style we opted for real leather braided buttons.
- Shawl collar
- Real leather braided buttons
- Hand knitted
- Heavy gauge hand knitted
- Ribbed cuffs and hem
- Welt hand pockets
- Shawl collar
- 50% wool 50% anti-pilling acrylic
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If you’re not familiar with the term Cowichan, you’re almost certainly familiar with the style. These sweaters have been worn by everyone from Steve McQueen to The Dude in The Big Lebowski. More than just chunky knits with expressive designs, however, they’ve also got some deep history.
True Cowichans are made by Coast Salish knitters in British Columbia, Canada. As the story goes, the sweater style comes out of a cultural exchange in the 1850s. At the time, natives in the Cowichan Valley had been knitting leggings and blankets out of mountain goat and dog wool for centuries. When European settlers arrived, however, they learned how to knit socks, mitts, and sweaters, as well as farm wool from sheep. At some point in the late 19th century, a settler from the Shetland Islands named Jerimina Colvin taught Cowichan knitters how to embellish sweaters using Fair Isle traditions, forever changing the region’s knitwear.
Today, Cowichan sweaters are something of a mix of that history – hefty, wool cardigans with Native Canadian motifs, all expressed through low-gauge Scottish knitting techniques. They’re typically made without side seams, knitted from undyed yarns, and come with a slightly-dropped shoulder line. And unlike their Fair Isle and Shetland cousins in Europe, which are often machine-knit or hand-framed, true Cowichan knits are always completely handmade. That means a knitter, often a woman, is working with just two knitting needles and some bulky, hand-spun yarn.
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SNEUM
Copenhagen based
menswear brand
proposing a
Scandinavian take
on the Americana
aesthetics