Comments on: Aran Stitches and their Meanings

By: Aran Knitter

Aran Knitter — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:55:40 +0000

I took a class on Aran knitting and the instructor started by asking us what happens when a wool sweater gets wet. Of course, it weighs a ton! Had the fisherman and sailors worn these sweaters to sea they would have been hampered by the weight of the wet sweater, not to mention being drowned had they gone overboard. Additionally, due to the amount of time these decorative sweater took to make they would have been saved as Sunday clothes. They would have worn plain garter or stocking stitched sweaters UNDER their macintoshes. The “meanings” as the author notes here are purely romantic.

By: Mry Holmes

Mry Holmes — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:45:48 +0000

Doesn’t make it not true either

By: Katherine

Katherine — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:14:22 +0000

‘Apparantly’ is a good word. This misconception was very, very widely disseminated and believed, but that doesn’t make it true.

By: Mry Holmes

Mry Holmes — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:59:43 +0000

In the book ‘World Textiles” published by Thames and Hodder there are some very old photographs of fishermen wearing Aran sweaters and apparantly the patterns on their garments indicate which area they came from.

By: P Gray

P Gray — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:39:28 +0000

That fable was originated with a stage play that mentioned she identified a body by the number of stitches she dropped in a garment. The Scottish, not the Britons, were known to have family patterns and such, but did not use Aran to do this.