Aran Sweaters for the Irish

[piperdbh]

I plan to make myself one of these sweaters out of my much-mentioned llama wool yarn. It's naturally white and really soft.

As far as perpetuating a myth goes, it is true that the "Clan Sweater" is a recent invention, but what if the chief of a particular clan authorized one particular sweater pattern to be the "official" sweater of that clan? Wouldn't that make it just as much a clan symbol as our tartans and cap badges? I don't kow if any chiefs have done this, but it would be interesting to know.

I remember seeing a comedy skit once about some folks who were "reading" a sweater that had washed up on shore. They "read" the story of cables out loud, just like Timmy could translate Lassie's barks and the brothers could interpret Flipper's clicks and squeaks. I'm not doing it justice describing it, but I remember it as being terribly funny.

[Jack Daw]

And, for Scottish food, we in the U.S. haven't begun to see deep-fried Mars bars or deep-fried pizza, yet, at the Highland games. At least I haven't.

[O'Callaghan]

What gives the lie to this is, for example, they rightly say that O'Callaghans come mostly from Munster, but the Aran islands aren't in Munster, or even close. Look at a map. Why would there be a design for a name that isn't local? That said, there may be designs that genuinely correspond to local surnames from the Aran islands, although these may not necessarily be them!

However, some few Irish clans do exist. The Irish Records Office once kept track of the succession of about 20 clan chiefs, although they have stopped doing that. The reason they quit was apparently not that it's unconstitutional to recognise titles of nobility in Ireland, even though it is, but because of an alleged conman pretending to be the McCarthy Mor, i.e. the Great McCarthy, or chief of the McCarthys.

The chief of the O'Callaghans is referred to simply by the title of the "The O'Callaghan" (note that there is not, and cannot be, a definite article in my user name here), and there is a current chief. He lives in Barcelona, Spain! He is also a "Don", i.e. he is both a Spanish and an Irish noble.

There are a dozen or two Irish family tartans (horribly expensive special orders unless you happen to be a Murphy), but most of them don't correspond to recognised clans (I don't think Murphy was ever recognised by the IRO as a clan, for instance), and probably fewer than half the recognised Irish clans have a tartan. Ironically, this resembles how it was in Scotland at one time, including the actual number of recognised clans being quite low, but now it seems like almost every Scot has a clan and a tartan!

The Callaghan tartan is not strictly a clan tartan as would be understood in Scotland, in the sense that it has not been recognised by our chief AFAIK. It was just designed, very recently I might add, by someone called Peter Callaghan, who I understand says that anyone of the name can wear it.

[Dan R Porter]

What is a jumper?

[TNKiltedWolf]

What is a jumper?

From what I understand it is a pull over sweater. Different land, different nomenclature. In Germany they call it a "Pulli" (as in pull over your head).

[TheKiltedWonder]

From what I understand it is a pull over sweater. Different land, different nomenclature. In Germany they call it a "Pulli" (as in pull over your head).

Pulli is short for Pullover, which is what many Aran sweaters are, though there are plenty of cardigans as well.

And yes, that's what a jumper is as well.

As for deep fried mars bars and the like, I've seen them offered at Virginia's Scottish Festivals. Of course when you've got a few deep fat fryers of your own, you can fry anything you'd like...such as cadbury eggs...

[O'Callaghan]

From what I understand it is a pull over sweater. Different land, different nomenclature. In Germany they call it a "Pulli" (as in pull over your head).

Although, from what German I studied, I thought the German verb to pull is ziehen? It has been a long time since I was in school, though. Perhaps they got Pulli from the Brit expression woolly pully (woolen pullover).

Needless to say, I think the song Woolly Bully is hilarious. Just change the B to a P and you're singing about a sweater. In fact, I thought they were when I first heard it! I didn't realise it was a B for quite a while.

[orangehaggis]

Itchy is in the skin (?) of the beholder. I prefer wearing woollens. As mentioned in another thread, I'm something of a fibre snob. I shy away from synthetics and synthetic blends. I like the feel of wool, although I always wear button-up shirts under my jumpers as a matter of course.

I seem to remember seeing photographs of Irish folk singers from "days of yore" wearing Aran jumpers. The Clancy Brothers spring to mind. I also remember an elderly woman in Co. Londonderry telling me about a relative of hers that wore such a garment ... apparently this male relation was offered obscene amounts of money by an American tourist that wanted the very jumper off his back! He didn't relent - he kept his jumper and his dignity.

Because I'm rather short, but ample in proportion width-wise, I find that jumpers that fit well across the chest and gut are always too long in the torso for kilted wear.

Mark O - Ohio

[lickstone]

Aran sweater patterns are numerous in my collection of knitting books. You are right there are many patterns and all very beautiful. I've posted a couple of my favorites and have more to post.

For those of us who are Irish or of Irish heritage, this may be of interest. Many Irish clans have their own knitting pattern used in Aran sweaters. If your not familiar with these sweaters, they are phenomenal. I already own one, but when I bought mine, I couldn't find my clan. Now that has changed. So if your interested in finding out if your family has a pattern, go here...

http://www.clanarans.com/ca/catalog/...579735c95dbfbe