Few garments are as bound up with the image of Ireland as the Aran sweater, that heavy cream coloured jumper worked all over with cables, diamonds and honeycomb. It takes its name from the three windswept Aran Islands at the mouth of Galway Bay, where the knitting tradition was carried to a high art.
The undyed wool, once left rich in its natural oils, helped turn the wind and rain of the Atlantic, and every household had its own way of working the stitches. The patterns were never merely decorative, for the cable is said to echo the fisherman's ropes and the diamond the small stone walled fields of the islands.Today the Aran sweater is worn around the world, but it began as honest island clothing, knitted by firelight for husbands and sons who worked the sea. In each family's stitches was a quiet kind of signature, a piece of home worn close to the heart. -author unknown
I saw this picture of this beautiful Aran jumper in heavy beige wool and it took me back to the one I knitted for my ex-husband when we were engaged. It was made in Jet Wool about 8ply.
I loved making it but it got very heavy as it grew. I had to post this for myself to remember...
Keep clicking and stitching,
Glenys
