Most sweaters keep a low profile. This one has a snarling tiger across the chest and a whole scene on the back, and the tiger comes with a story.

It started with a jacket. Our Senior Apparel Buyer's father brought home a silk sukajan from his military service overseas, one of those boldly embroidered souvenir jackets with fierce animals worked into every inch. We wanted to know what that jacket would look like knit in wool, so we called Kanata, a Vancouver family business that has been hand-knitting heavy wool sweaters since 1979.

Post Summary:

Cowichan sweaters were created by Coast Salish knitters on Vancouver Island in the early 1900s, using hand-spun wool that sheds the rain.
Kanata has hand-knit Cowichan-inspired sweaters in Vancouver since 1979, and still makes every one by hand.
Our zip-up borrows its tiger from a vintage sukajan and is hand-knit by skilled artisans in Vancouver.

A Coast Salish Original

Long before anyone on Vancouver Island picked up a pair of knitting needles, the Coast Salish people were working with wool. They spun mountain goat wool and the hair of small white wool dogs (now extinct) into blankets so striking that the first Spanish and British visitors to the coast took notice. Those blankets were valuable trade goods, and they carried real cultural weight too.

When European settlers arrived in the mid-1800s, they brought sheep, and they brought knitting. Coast Salish women took both and made something entirely their own. By the early 1900s, knitters in the Cowichan Valley and surrounding communities were turning out heavy, hand-spun sweaters with bold bands of geometric and animal designs, many drawn from traditional weaving and basketry.

Why they work.

"Washed gently by hand, the wool keeps its natural lanolin, and that's what sheds the rain."

The secret is in how the wool is handled. Traditional knitters wash raw fleece by hand, card it, and spin it into thick, single-ply yarn without stripping out the lanolin, the natural oil that keeps sheep dry. The result is a sweater that's warm, breathable, and surprisingly water-resistant, built for a coast where it rains most of the winter.

Kanata: Knit by Hand Since 1979

Kanata got its start in Vancouver in 1979, with a small group of skilled knitters making heavy wool sweaters by hand. More than four decades later, it's still family-owned, now run by the second generation, and still doing things the slow way.

Every Kanata sweater is knit by hand by artisans working from their homes, using thick, 100% wool yarn sourced in Canada. Because each one is made by hand, no two come out exactly alike. That kind of craft has earned Kanata a following well beyond British Columbia. You'll find their knits in shops in New York, London, and Tokyo.

The slow way.

"No machines, no shortcuts. Every Kanata sweater is knit by hand."

Kanata continues to draw inspiration from the Coast Salish knitters who created the style, and its patterns draw on the classic motifs those knitters made famous: bold geometric bands, wildlife, and the shawl collars and zip fronts that turned a work sweater into a West Coast icon.

From Souvenir Jacket to Hand-Knit Wool

If you've never seen a sukajan, picture a satin bomber with a tiger, dragon, or eagle embroidered so densely it practically jumps off the fabric. The style took off after World War II, when American servicemen stationed in Japan started having them made as souvenirs. The name comes from Yokosuka, the port city with a big US naval base where a lot of them were sold. Soldiers and sailors brought them home, and they've been showing up in thrift stores, closets, and fashion week ever since.

This sweater begins with one of those jackets: a silk sukajan our Senior Apparel Buyer's father picked up while serving overseas. We wanted to bring the same energy to a Cowichan-inspired knit, so we pulled a pattern from Kanata's archives and reworked it until it had the swagger of a vintage tour jacket.

The result is an exclusive wool zip-up, hand-knit start to finish by a skilled artisan in Vancouver. The tiger is split down the middle by the zipper, so it comes together when you zip up, and the back carries the full scene, the way a great souvenir jacket always does. It pairs well with a plain [[t-shirt]] or a [[flannel shirt]], dark [[denim]], and a pair of boots like our [[Danner Mountain Pass]]. Keep the rest of the outfit quiet and let the tiger do the talking.

Pairs Well With…

Treat It Like an Heirloom

A hand-knit wool sweater can last for decades. It just needs a little care along the way.

Skip the washing machine. Have it dry cleaned when it really needs it, and spot clean small spills with a damp cloth and cold water in between.
Fold it, don’t hang it. A heavy knit will stretch out on a hanger. Fold it and keep it on a shelf.
Let it breathe. Wool naturally resists odor, so airing it out overnight after a long day usually does the trick.
Add some cedar in the off-season. A few cedar blocks in the drawer will keep moths from getting any ideas.

Made to Be Handed Down

Wear it hard. Zip it up on the first cold morning of the year, and keep reaching for it until the wool softens, the tiger has a few miles on it, and maybe–you've got a worthy successor to pass it on to.

Bespoke Post x Kanata Cowichan-Inspired Zip-Up Sweater