As anyone who regularly trolls for Lebowski gear on ebay knows, the Dude’s Pendleton Cowichan sweater is a hot item. Forget about investing in gold, these babies are now going for upwards of 200-400 US dollars a pop.
If you don’t have that kind of cash laying around and you are a fan of knitting (or know someone who is), you can follow the lead of an earnest achiever from Seattle and make your own!
Andrea Rangel (who looks like she could be related to Julianne Moore, a high Dudeist compliment) spent months designing and knitting her own version of the Dude’s famous sweater for the lucky beneficiary, her brother in law. It looks fucking far out, if we dude say so ourselves.
If you dig her style, consider donating to this worthy testament to undying Dudeness, via the donate link on her site. And best of luck finding the time (or the knitter) to tie all the strands together. You can see more on her Ravelry.com page (you’ll need to sign up though).
By the way, here’s an innarestin’ article about the actual historical Cowichan sweater. Apparently the Pendleton version isn’t really that authentic. But who are we to split hairs?
I sent this website to Dudeabides a while back and she started making her own “Dude sweater.” Quite the undertaking from what I hear.
It is true that these sweaters go for 200-400 on Ebay, but those are just amateur saps paying that. In the past month I’ve bought two for $31 each. Let me repeat that. I paid $30 + shipping.
Chalupa: These sweaters you purchased, did the colours match exactly to The Dude’s? When you do a search on ebay.com for “lebowski sweater” or what have you, you get a ton of results but a small handful match the sweater worn by The Dude. There are a bunch of them out there that have the similar design but they are orange or blue, or some other ugly colour. Sadly the ones that are an exact match are approximately 40 years old and have burn holes or stains, and probably smell bad too, definitely not making them worth the $200-500 a pop.
I recently contracted a knitter to make me a sweater based on Andrea Rangel’s pattern. The cost for wool + labour is $230, a steal in my opinion for a sweater that isn’t older than me.
dicque: The ones I purchased were slightly off-color, but they look awesome. If you really want an exact match and don’t want to pay top dollar, you might have to wait a few months. I was checking ebay every couple days for 2-3 months before I found the ones I bought. When I was looking I did find some cheap ones that were exact replicas, they weren’t the correct size.
Also, if you’re looking for a good deal, try searching for the style of sweater or original manufacturer. Some people post the sweaters and have no idea some guy from a movie wore one thus making it famous.
I am knitted big lebowski sweater
1 year finish :)xxxl sized
Here;
https://www.etsy.com/listing/128059851/hand-knit-big-lebowski-the-dude-sweater?ref=shop_home_active