The
Aran is a style of jumper/
sweaterA sweater, jumper, pullover, sweatshirt, jersey or guernsey is a garment intended to cover the torso and arms. They are usually worn over a shirt, blouse, T-shirt, or other top. Sweaters tend to be, and in earlier times always were, made from wool; however, they can be made of cotton, synthetic...
that takes its name from the
Aran IslandsThe Aran Islands or The Arans are a group of three islands located at the mouth of Galway Bay, on the west coast of Ireland. Irish is the main spoken language on all three islands, and is the language used naming the islands and their villages and townlands...
off the west coast of
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
. It is sometimes known as a fisherman sweater. A classical fisherman's sweater is a bulky garment with prominent cable patterns on the chest, often cream-colored.
The sweaters are distinguished by their use of complex textured stitch patterns, several of which are combined in the creation of a single garment. The word choice of "jumper" or "sweater" (or indeed other options such as "
pulloverPullover may refer to:* Pullover Productions, UK producer of the children's television programme Pullover in the early 1980s* Sweater or hoodie, a piece of clothing "pulled over" the head instead of buttoned-up...
" and "
jerseyThe Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes the nearly uninhabited islands of the Minquiers, Écréhous, the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs. Together with the bailiwick of Guernsey...
") is largely determined by the regional version of English being spoken. In the case of Ireland and Britain, "jumper" is the standard word with "sweater" mainly found in tourist shops. The word used in
IrishIrish is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now only spoken natively by a small minority of the Irish population but also plays an important symbolic role in the life of the Irish state, and is used...
is
geansaí, a gaelicization of
guernseyA guernsey, or gansey, is a seaman's knitted woolen sweater, similar to a jersey, which originated in the Channel Island of the same name.-Origins:...
which has been re-Anglicised to
gansey in
Hiberno-EnglishHiberno-English also known as Irish English is the dialect of English spoken in Ireland. The English language was first brought to Ireland during the Norman invasion of Ireland in the late 12th century. However, due to England's inability to control the country, it was only spoken by a small...
.
Originally the jumpers were
knittedKnitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth. Knitting consists of loops called stitches pulled through each other. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can be passed through them....
using unscoured
woolWool is a fibrous protein derived from the specialized skin cells called follicles. The wool is taken from animals in the Caprinae family, principally sheep, but the hair of certain species of other mammals including: goats, llamas, and rabbits may also be called wool...
that retained its natural oils (
lanolinLanolin [German : from Latin lāna=wool + Latin oleum=oil] also called Adeps Lanae, wool wax, wool fat, anhydrous wool fat or wool grease, is a greasy yellow substance secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals, with the vast majority of it used by humans coming from domestic sheep...
) which made the garments water-resistant and meant they remained wearable even when wet. It was primarily the wives of island fishermen who knitted the jumpers.
Some stitch patterns have a traditional interpretation, often of religious significance. The
honeycombA honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal waxcells built by commercial and wild honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen.Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey...
is a symbol of the hard-working
beeBees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
. 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
diamondIn geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.In general, a polygon whose...
is a wish of success, wealth and treasure. The basket stitch represents the fisherman's basket, a hope for a plentiful catch.
Characteristics
Traditionally, an Aran jumper is made from undyed cream-coloured
báinín (pronounced "bawneen"), a yarn made from sheep's wool, sometimes "black-sheep" wool. They were originally made with unwashed wool that still contained natural sheep lanolin, making it to an extent water-repellent. Up to the 1970s, the island women spun their own
yarnYarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibers, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
on
spinning wheelA spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from natural or synthetic fibers.-History:The earliest clear illustrations of the spinning wheel come from Baghdad , China and Europe , and there is evidence that spinning wheels had already come into use in both China and the Islamic world...
s.
The jumper usually features 4–6 texture patterns each of which is about 5–10 cm (2–4 in) 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 is also used to make socks, hats, vests and even skirts.
History
There is debate about when island residents first started making the jumpers. Undoubtedly, residents of the islands produced a local version of a
GanseyA guernsey, or gansey, is a seaman's knitted woolen sweater, similar to a jersey, which originated in the Channel Island of the same name.-Origins:...
jumper similar to other areas of the British Isles for several centuries. Traditional Ganseys from neighboring regions have much of the same cabling and pattern-work seen in Aran jumpers; however these Ganseys use different construction methods and are knit from a finer wool. Some have suggested that the jumper is an ancient design that has been used on the islands for hundreds of years. Proponents of this theory often point to a picture in the
Book of KellsThe Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was transcribed by Celtic monks ca. 800...
that appears to depict an ancient "Aran jumper". Also, many
megalithA megalith is a large stone which has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. Megalithic describes structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement.The word 'megalith' comes from the...
s around
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
depict similar patterns to those used in the knitting, which are carved into the stone, and date back several thousand years. However, it is more likely that the knitting stitches were modelled on these than that they evolved contemporaneously.
Most historians agree that far from being an ancient craft, Aran knitting was invented as recently as the early 1900s by a small group of enterprising island women, with the intention of creating garments not just for their families to wear but which could be sold as a source of income. These women adapted the traditional Gansey jumper by knitting with thicker wool and modifying the construction to decrease labor and increase productivity.
The first commercially available Aran knitting patterns were published in the 1940s by Patons of England.
VogueVogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine published in 16 countries + Latin America by Condé Nast Publications. Each month, Vogue publishes a magazine addressing topics of fashion, life and design.-Style and influence:...
magazine carried articles on the garment in the 1950s, and jumper exports from the west of Ireland to the United States began in the early 1950s.
The development of the export trade during the 1950s and 1960s took place after P.A. Ó Síocháin organised an instructor, with the help of a grant from the
Congested Districts Board for IrelandThe Congested Districts Board for Ireland was formed in 1891 to alleviate poverty and "congested" living conditions in the west of Ireland. The board was dissolved in 1923 and its staff was absorbed into the Irish Land Commission when its functions were assumed by the Department of Fisheries and...
, to go to the islands and teach the knitters how to make garments to standard international sizings. He commissioned the Irish artist
Seán KeatingSeán Keating was an Irish romantic-realist painter who painted some iconic images of the insurrectionary period and of the early industrialization of Ireland...
, who had spent much time on the islands, to design and illustrate marketing brochures. Knitting became an important part of the islands’ economy, and during the 1960s, even with all available knitters recruited from the three islands and from other parts of Ireland, he had difficulty in fulfilling orders from around the world.
Myths about Aran jumpers
Aran jumpers are often sold as a "fisherman sweater", suggesting that the jumper was traditionally used by the islands' famous fishermen. There is also some doubt about whether Aran jumpers were ever widely used by fishermen and many argue that the original jumpers with their untreated yarn would not have been suitable for this use. They are quite thick and stiff, which would probably restrict the movements of a fisherman. However, the traditional Gansey jumpers which served as the model for the Aran jumpers have been worn by seamen and fishermen throughout the British Isles for centuries. Islanders can be seen wearing them in photographs taken early in the 20th century.
It is sometimes said that each fisherman (or his family) had a jumper 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, even in the play, there is no reference to any decorative or Aran-type pattern. The garment referred to is a plain stocking and it is identified by the number of stitches, 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".
There is no record of any such event ever having taken place, nor is there any evidence to support there being a systematic tradition of family patterns. There is, however, a long-standing tradition of jumper patterns having a regional or local identification. It is said that the county, or parish, or township of a sailor or a fisherman could be identified by his jumper pattern. Additionally, the wearer's initials were traditionally knit into the bottom of the garment, which would have been a far better indication of identity than the stitching pattern.
Clan Aran patterns
The idea of clan Aran sweaters has widespread appeal to the
Irish diasporaThe Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil and states of the Caribbean and continental Europe...
and is often used as a marketing tool.. Most research concludes that there is no definitive evidence to support the concept of clan patterns, though it is possible that variations in design may have occurred in different families and regions. Anecdotal evidence varies on this point, with some older knitters saying that family patterns existed and others denying it.
Aran production today
While in the past, the majority of jumpers and other Aran garments were knitted by hand, today the majority of items for sale in Ireland and elsewhere are either machine knit or produced on a hand
loomA loom is a machine or device for weaving thread or yarn into textiles. Looms can range from very small hand-held frames, to large free-standing hand looms, to huge automatic mechanical devices. The ancient Egyptians and Chinese used looms as early as 4000 BC.The basic purpose of any loom is to...
. There are very few people still knitting jumpers by hand on a commercial basis.
Machine-knitted jumpers tend to use finer wool and have less complex patterns, since many of the traditional stitches cannot be reproduced this way. They are the least expensive option. Hand-looming allows more complicated stitches to be used, will have fewer stitches to the inch and be thicker. The best quality hand-loomed sweaters are almost indistinguishable from hand knit. Hand knit jumpers tend to be more tightly knit, to have more complex stitch patterns and to be longer lasting and they attract a significant price premium. By holding them up to light, the difference between the machine knit and hand knit is evident.
External links
- Aran Knitwear Some history and good images of stitches with their meanings.