I know many people have already posted their versions of the Project Hail Mary fox sweater, but this particular project inspired me in a way a project never has before. I saw PHM on opening day and immediately developed a “sweater crush” (as my mom calls it) on the fox sweater. What followed was nothing short of a, ahem, fox hole, into the history of not only this particular pattern, but the patterns that came before it.
First, because the movie was so new, it took me a little digging to find the original pattern. I ultimately found it through an Instagram post by jen_markham (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWJ5BnCjpI9/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==) about another Instagram post (https://www.instagram.com/p/DWJY7y8iKqH/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==) that the costume designer, Glyn Dillon (glyn__dillon), wrote about the pattern. Paraphrasing here: essentially Glyn found a wolf cardigan that someone had knit at a vintage fair and fell in love with it. However, he and his co-costume designer ultimately decided to not use it because the wolf looked “too aggressive”. Glyn held onto the sweater, and when Ryan Gosling came by for a costume test, he saw the sweater and loved it, too. It was Ryan that suggested that they change the wolves to foxes and thus new, friendlier sweaters were knit for the movie.
This led me to the Mary Maxim website and the original vintage pattern. Mary Maxim (originally founded in Paris, Ontario and later moved to Michigan) is a third-generation family-run yarn manufacturer and design company. They tout themselves as being the first to create “graph-style knitting patterns.” In the history video on their website (https://www.marymaxim.com/pages/about-marymaxim), they state that they created “Cowichan-style” sweaters which gained massive popularity at the time.
While the sweaters are distinctly not Cowichan, it is important to recognize the Cowichan Tribe’s work and the originating patterns that inspired so many. Authentic Cowichan sweaters are made with undyed, hand-spun wool. Per Cheryl’s Trading Post (a retailer of Native American art) (https://www.cherylstradingpost.com/service/the-story-of-the-cowichan-sweater-in-five-parts/): “The Cowichan Tribes registered ‘Cowichan’, ‘Genuine Cowichan’, and ‘Genuine Cowichan Approved’ as trademarks for goods that ‘have been hand-knit in one piece in accordance with the traditional tribal methods by members of the Coast Salish Nation using raw, unprocessed, undyed, hand-spun wool, also made and prepared in accordance with traditional tribal methods.’”
Back to Mary Maxim and the original wolf pattern. The pattern lacks an actual copyright date, but as far as I’ve been able to source, it was probably written in the early-to-mid 1950’s. It was reprinted in 1974 in a Mary Maxim catalog (that I could verify since it’s written on the pattern itself). The original pattern was written to promote Mary Maxim’s bulky weight wool yarn (https://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/mary-maxim-northland-wool-4-ply) and Mary Maxim needles, both of which are now discontinued.
When I made it to the website, the original wolf pattern was being sold for $2.99 USD and the kit for $79.99 USD for the smaller sizes. From the not-so-great still shots I could find of the PHM sweater from the movie, I didn’t feel that the kit pattern was a good enough match, so I decided to re-chart the sweater for myself and just bought the vintage pattern. Most importantly though, this indicated to me that Mary Maxim (the company) was not directly involved in the redesign of the PHM version of the sweater.
That being said, small business is small business, and with many small yarn manufacturers being snapped up by private equity, I wanted to support Mary Maxim and did purchase their Titan 100% acrylic bulky weight yarn (https://www.marymaxim.com/products/mary-maxim-titan-bulky-yarn) to go alongside the pattern.
From there, I kind of obsessively stalked their website to see the pattern increase from that $2.99 as high as $7.99 and the kit increase in price (and get sold out, twice!). It’s been a pleasure to see the rise in popularity of this sweater, and learn about its history. So, I submit my version of the Project Hail Mary fox sweater :)