Aran Sweaters for the Irish

[Pleater]

It is, unfortunately, total tosh - unless you want to believe that 'traditional' means 'something someone made up and employed our grandparents to knit so they could sell them'.

The whole concept of the Arran sweaters (I think it was originally Arran) was 'developed' by a man wanting something to sell to the tourists.

The bainin yarn might well have been in use before, for making sweaters much like the fisher ganseys which seems to have been the standard garment for working men - its place, chronologically, being somewhere between the traditional smock and the short jacket.

The white versions were worn for church, though incoming ministers not knowing the local ways were responsible for getting rid of it in some places as they saw it as not respectful and declared the the men should wear shirt and jacket. Its place as a garment for the groom, and for first communions, lingered on, with grandma's embarrassing their grandsons with gifts of lovingly crafted white jerseys for decades.

[thanmuwa]

The whole concept of the Arran sweaters (I think it was originally Arran) was 'developed' by a man wanting something to sell to the tourists.

Nope, Arran is in Scotland, the Aran Islands (where the jumpers come from) are off the Galway coast.
For more information about the postulated origins,
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fas...nal/index.html

The white versions were worn for church, though incoming ministers not knowing the local ways were responsible for getting rid of it in some places as they saw it as not respectful and declared the the men should wear shirt and jacket. Its place as a garment for the groom, and for first communions, lingered on, with grandma's embarrassing their grandsons with gifts of lovingly crafted white jerseys for decades.

Not too many ministers on the Aran Islands :-) (apparently, there is the ruin of one protestant church though) though I agree about being forced to wear embarrassing jumpers as a kid, a very Irish thing!

[Nick the DSM]

those sweaters are kinda cool but i don't know if i would want to get one.

[macwilkin]

The article posted by thanmuwa makes a very interesting point about Aran Sweaters:

Contrary to popular belief, the typical cable-patterned Aran jumper is a 20th-century invention. In 1891 the government set up the Congested Districts Board to help poor families to survive unemployment and a shortage of potatoes. The Board encouraged local people to weave and knit garments to sell.

By the 20th century this cottage industry began to take off and the Board trained knitters to create complex patterns from stitches such as honeycomb, figure eight and double diamond. Instead of the dark coloured, oiled wools traditionally used to make fishermen’s jerseys, the islanders experimented with soft, thick, undyed yarn.

By the 1930s, Aran knitting was being sold to tourists from shops in cities like Dublin and it soon became known worldwide. Vogue Knitting published an Aran pattern in 1956 and the design became popular in America. Aran knitting can now be done by machine, but hand-knitted jumpers are still sought after.

I also note that it says nothing about a historical precedent for sweater patterns associated with particular surnames, only regional variations.

Interesting article; thanks for posting!

Regards,

Todd

[Dan R Porter]

This is off topic and an OLD thread, but I want to know before I buy, are those aran sweaters as itchy as they look?

[csbdr]

I wear a button-down shirt under mine. Merino wool ones are softer, but I have one and they pill easier.

Also, look on ebay. I've gotten somoe there searching "Aran sweater XL" You can get one easily for $50- 75. I just spent$100 and got 2, a forest green crew neck and a cream zip neck. I had purchaseed a heather grey crew for about $55 a bit ago. Like new. Just a thought....

This is off topic and an OLD thread, but I want to know before I buy, are those aran sweaters as itchy as they look?