When I was a child, I would watch my mother while she created the Cowichan Sweaters, as she watched her own mother, this is how the teaching was passed down, by the child watching then one day doing. I remember when we were young my brothers and sisters and I would help my mother with washing the wool, we used to have a big tub in the back that we to wash the wool in and then we would lay it out in the sun to dry. The sun would not only dry the wool but it would also lighten the color as well.  I remember spending hours teasing the wool to get it ready for carding, back then the only carding machine we had were two paddles with staples attached to it when we finished carding my mom would spin so that I could have money to spend at the movies.

Today Creating a sweater is less time consuming because the stores have machines that do the washing, teasing and carding of the wool.  But I still prefer to spin the wool myself, it has been a long time since the old wash bucket, but I continue to knit today using designs passed down from my mother as well as creating my own knitting patterns, which I now teach to my daughter.