Where have all the Cowichan sweaters gone?

Reminds me of the lyrics from "Where Have All The Flowers Gone", the song the late Pete Seeger adapted in 1955. 

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Those wistful lyrics of sadness and loss remind me of the gorgeous "curling" sweaters I had scrounged at some thrift store back in my university days. I enjoyed their warmth and comfort for many, many years but, at some short-sighted stage of my life in the desire to lighten my load, presumably during a move, I regrettably passed these on to some donation pile. I keep a watchful eye out anticipating I will see my coveted sweaters cloaked over the frame of some stranger. I'm still watching.

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What I knew as the "curling sweater" actually had its origins as the iconic Cowichan sweater. The history of the sweater and of the First Nations women who are its original creators is richly described in Sylvia Olsen's book entitled "Working With Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowichan Sweater"  - published by Sono Nis Press 2010. The beautiful sweaters of the West Coast Salish were later popularized by "Mary Maxim"and others and the designs reinterpreted to appeal to popular culture. Hence today we see designs ranging from thunderbirds and moose to motor boats and rocket ships. A knocked-off version of the Cowichan sweater was even produced by The Hudson's Bay Company for Canadian team members of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

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Whether you know it as the Cowichan, Siwash, Mary Maxim or curling sweater there remains a rich variety of sweaters out there - both old and new. Here are but a few that caught my eye.

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/northcowboy/

A sampling of Mary Maxim designs

http://www.campkitschyknits.com 

More from http://www.campkitschyknits.com

More Mary Maxim's

http://www.grantedclothing.com/

SNOW DAY for CAMP HO-BA-CHEE

It's a pretty snowy day in Trent Hills today and we have been doing more than our fair share of shovelling. But the biggest challenge was deciding what would be the best way to get to our shop in Warkworth today. Some of our options were:

Train - except there is none in these parts so scratch that.

Skiing. True, there are lots of hills here but not that many. And without a chair lift - forget it.

A weird wheeled hovercrafty thing with ski attachments. Except we don't own one. Darn.

Snowshoes. Really? Are you kidding me? I get out of breathe going around the block!

By way of an adorable, vintage snowmobile. It would be perfect and we'd look so cute on it. Again the problem is that we don't own one. Poopy!

By sled. Good idea except they're all at the shop and not here.

By modifying our van into a hovercrafty thing. But by the time we modified our van it would be time to close the shop and come back home. So kinda defeats the purpose.

By spinning our way to work. We tried, but got too dizzy.

 

And by far our personal favourite way was to strip down to the bare essentials with a bunch of crazy friends and toboggan to work. The only problem was all our crazy friends are already in Warkworth and not here.

And so we stayed home!

We miss you Warkworth. Hope to see you and all our crazy friends tomorrow.

It's the magical night of the Warkworth Santa Clause Parade. The parade starts at 7pm and winds it's way down Main Street where you will find Camp Ho-Ba-Chee and other shops open throughout. We will be offering up candy canes, hot chocolate and chai along with our usual smiles so drop on in for a visit and a warm up.

We are Sooooooo Excited!

FALLEN ANGEL SEEKS NEW HOME

This little darlin' may be a little bumped & bruised & soiled but to us she remains a perfect little angel. If you wish to open your home & heart to her she can be found at Camp Ho-Ba-Chee in Warkworth.

WARKWORTH LONG LUNCH and OUR 2ND ANNIVERSARY

This Sunday August 18th promises to be a beautiful day and what better way to enjoy the late summer than an old fashioned community lunch. The Warkworth Long Lunch is an annual event that celebrates community, the bounty of summers harvest, and is an ideal occasion to meet up with old friends and develop new ones. It is simply put a feel-good day that is sure to put a smile on your face.

And it is on this very weekend that Camp Ho-Ba-Chee celebrates our 2nd Anniversary! Hard to imagine that two years has already flown by since we first opened our doors in Warkworth. We are just as giddy and excited now as we were then. We are amazed by all the fascinating and generous people we have met and the wonderful friendships we have developed. 

Warkworth, WE LOVE 'YA!

So come on to Warkworth on Sunday, have a great meal, great laughs, and enjoy some toe tapping music by the Fade Kings. As well, all the shops and galleries will be open for you to explore.

Make sure to drop in for a visit and say hi to us at Camp Ho-Ba-Chee. 

If you say "PIE, DID YOU SAY PIE!" you will earn 

yourself a 10% discount on your purchases at Camp Ho-Ba-Chee. 

Our way of thanking you for your support in marking our 2nd Anniversary. 

WOO HOO!

Just In!

Beautiful set of 4 bentwood style chairs made in Poland with a numbered brass City Dairy Co. tag on underside. Circa 1910-20. Of Thonet, Mundus or Kohn origin.

City Dairy Co. was formed in Toronto in 1900 and was founded by Walter Massey (of Massey-Harris). It was subsequently sold to Borden's.

What's In A Name

Have we ever told you how we got our name?

It all started when we fell in love with this great sign.

We were at an antique show in Lakefield shortly after moving into the area. We bought this sign from one of the show vendors and it hung in our living room for several years.  All we were able to learn at the time was that the sign came from a camp in the Haliburton area in the 1950's. 

A few years later we decided to open an antique and vintage shop. We loved the Camp Ho-Ba-Chee sign and the fun, nostalgic and carefree spirit that it represented so it seemed a perfect fit for our shop name. 

We opened our doors in Warkworth in August 2011 and that Fall Rita Zekas did an article on the village and its shops for The Toronto Star. The day the article came out we received an e-mail from a man in Toronto whose father was one of two co-founders of the original Camp Ho-Ba-Chee. Through him we were able to discover that camp had been a boys camp in Haliburton on Big Brother Lake from 1948, 49 and 50. The name Camp Ho-Ba-Chee apparently translated to Camp Many Echoes.

Now you know the rest of the story! S'mores anyone?