Cowichan Inspired Doggy Bags

Most Canadians are familiar with Cowichan Sweaters – the beautiful, banded, heavy woolen sweaters knit by the First Nations women on Vancouver Island. These sweaters are perfect for our cool, rainy west coast weather.



Recently our Guild had a talk given by Sylvia Olsen. Sylvia is the author of a fabulous book called Working With Wool – A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowichan Sweater. http://www.sylviaolsen.ca/ It is a fascinating read – I bought a copy for myself. I hadn't realized how central these sweaters were to the economy of our First Nations people. Many women were able to put food on the table only because of their knitting.

But what intrigues me even more in the lore of the Salish people is the type of fibre they worked with long before Europeans arrived and introduced sheep and knitting needles. Heavy mats and blankets were woven from both mountain goat hair and dog hair. The Coast Salish people raised a small, white, woolly dog for its hair. I'm sure other cultures must have used dog hair, but I am not able to find information about it. It seems that these wool dogs were unique to this part of the world.They actually may be one of the earliest examples of dog breeding – selecting dogs for desirable qualities.

There are many stories about these dog. In Sylvia's books she says “the little white dogs whose hair complemented the goat wool were trained in magic and imbued with skills and traits not common to just any dog”. I love this, not only dog hair but magic dogs! And right here, where I live.

So thinking about both the magic dogs and the beautiful Cowichan knitting and I tried blending some different colours and breeds into my bags. I started with the hair of one of the most magic looking dogs I know – Maxine.

Maxine is an Australian Shepherd whom I met when she was a small puppy – I did her first set of vaccinations while she was still with her breeder. A year or so later, I saw the most beautiful dog ever, standing outside Walmart. I introduced myself to her person and gushed about how pretty she was and how I was enchanted with blue-eyed dogs. During the conversation, we realized that she was the same dog I'd met as a puppy! I convinced her people to save her hair for me.

The gray in these bags is from Maxine. The white is from a local Great Pyrenees and the red belongs to a Golden Retriever. I believe these Cowichan inspired bags hold a bit of dog magic.