The Aran sweater, or Arran sweater, which takes its name from the Aran Islands, was popular in the fishing villages on and islands off the West Coast of Ireland, or from the Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland. Most of the people in these towns made their living from farming and fishing - with the harsh climate creating a need for warm protective and practical clothing. The Aran Islands (Irish: Na hOileáin Árann) are a group of three islands located at the mouth of Galway Bay, on the west coast of Ireland. ... Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish. ... Arran shown within Argyll The Isle of Arran (Scots Gaelic: Eilean Arainn) is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde (430 km2). ... Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ...

Originally sweaters were knitted using unscoured wool that retained its natural greases making the garments more water-resistant and insulating even when wet. It was primarily wives of the fisherman who knitted the sweaters. Knit hat, yarn, and knitting needles. ... Wool in a shearing shed Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, AR Wool sheep, Royal Melbourne Show Wool is the fibre derived from the fur of animals of the Caprinae family, principally sheep and goats, but the hair of other mammals... Look up grease in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A Long Island fisherman cleans his nets A fisherman in central Chile A fisherman is a person who engages in the activity of fishing. ...

The Aran sweater can be knitted in many distinctive patterns. Some patterns have a traditional interpretation often of religious significance. The honeycomb is a symbol of the hard-working bee. The cable, an integral part of the fisherman's daily life, is said to be a wish for safety and good luck when fishing. The diamond is a wish of success wealth and treasure. The basket stitch represents the fisherman's basket, a hope for a plentiful catch. A pattern is a form, template, or model (or, more abstractly, a set of rules) which can be used to make or to generate things or parts of a thing, especially if the things that are generated have enough in common for the underlying pattern to be inferred or discerned... Honeycomb on a Langstroth frame A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal wax cells built by honeybees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. ... Families Andrenidae Apidae Colletidae Halictidae Megachilidae Melittidae Stenotritidae Bee collecting pollen Bees (a lineage within the superfamily Apoidea) are flying insects, closely related to wasps and ants. ... This shape is a rhombus In geometry, a rhombus (also known as a rhomb) is a quadrilateral in which all of the sides are of equal length. ...

Characteristics

The sweater is usually made with undyed cream-coloured báinín (pronounced bawneen) sheep's wool, sometimes "black-sheep" wool, and is even occasionally made with unwashed wool that still contains natural sheep lanolin, making it to an extent water-repellent. Up to the seventies the island women spun their own yarn on spinning wheels. This article is about yarn fiber. ... A spinning wheel is a device for making thread or yarn from fibrous material such as wool or cotton. ...

The sweater, locally called a gansey, usually features 4–6 texture patterns each of which is about 2–4 inches in width, that move down the sweater in columns from top to bottom. Usually the patterns are symmetrical to a centre axis extending down the centre of the front and back panel. The patterns also usually extend down the sleeves as well. The same textured knitting are also used to make socks, hats, vests and even skirts.

However it was not until P.A. Ó Síocháin organised an instructor, with the help of an IDA Ireland grant, to go to the islands and teach the knitters how to make garments to standard international sizings that exports in the late 1950s began to flourish. Even with all available knitters recruited from the three islands he had difficulty in fulfilling orders from around the world. Knitting had now became part of the island's subsistence economy. P.A. Ó Siocháin in 1985, age 80, modelling one of his Aran cardigans. ... IDA Ireland is the agency responsible for industrial development in Ireland. ...

Origin stories

There is debate about when island residents first started making the sweaters. Some have suggested that the sweater is an ancient design that has been used on the island for hundreds of years. Proponents of this theory often point to a picture in the Book of Kells that appears to depict an ancient "Aran sweater". Also many megaliths around Europe depict similar patterns as those used in the knitting, which are carved into the stone, and date back several thousand years. This page (folio 292r) contains the lavishly decorated text that opens the Gospel of John. ... Megalithic tomb, Mane Braz, Brittany Bronze age wedge tomb in the Burren area of Ireland A megalith is a large stone which has been used to construct a structure or monument either alone or with other stones. ... World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ...

Some historians, however, have cast doubt on this origin story and have suggested that the sweater, which is technically a very complex piece of knitting, was invented as recently as the 1920s by a small group of enterprising island women to be created and sold as a source of income.

The sweater is usually sold as a "fisherman sweater", indicating that the sweater was traditionally used by the island's famous fishermen. It is said that each fisherman (or their family) had a sweater with a unique design, so that if he drowned and was found maybe weeks later on the beach, his body could be identified.

This misconception may have originated with J.M. Synge's 1904 play 'Riders to the Sea', in which the body of a dead fisherman is identified by the hand-knitted stitches on one of his garments. However, the garment is actually a plain stocking and it is identified by the number of stitches rather than by a decorative pattern -- the quote being "it's the second one of the third pair I knitted, and I put up three score stitches, and I dropped four of them". John Millington Synge John Millington Synge (April 16, 1871 - March 24, 1909) was an Irish dramatist, poet, prose writer, and collector of folklore. ...

The first Aran knitting patterns were published in the 1940s by Patons of England after being supplied by a shop in Galway. Vogue magazine carried articles on the garment in the 1950s, and sweater exports from the west of Ireland to the United States began in the early 1950s. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ... Vogue can refer to: Vogue (magazine), a fashion magazine Vogue (dance), a style of dance Melchior de Vogüé (1848-1910), French writer Vogue (single), a song and a single by KMFDM Vogue (song), a song from the album Im Breathless by Madonna Vogue, a single released by Ayumi Hamasaki...

Again some doubt the idea that the sweater was used by fishermen and argue that the sweater, which is quite thick and stiff, would probably restrict the movements of a fisherman. On the other hand these garments were the only form of hardy clothing they had to weather the Atlantic Ocean storms in. They may be seen wearing them in photographs taken early in the last century.

External links

• History and usage of Aran sweaters
• Origin of sweater, showing stitches