Many people are familiar with Irish sweaters and how popular they are to both wear and give out as a gift.  Of course wool is the number one material used in making an Irish sweater.  But not as many people know the different types of Irish sweaters that are available, or how they are made.  Let’s take a look at the Aran sweater.

Aran Irish Sweaters

Off the West coast of Ireland are the Aran Islands.  That is where this type of sweater originated.  The islands are near the mouth of the Galway Bay and on the edge of the Atlantic in a harsh area.  This was an area of fisherman and farmers, a tough and hardy bunch who would welcome any kind of warm sweater.  The Aran sweater was born of necessity and improved over time.  This sweater could be one of the finest Irish gifts you could give to someone special.

Buy Irish Aran Sweaters Here

Aran sweaters are a symbol for various clans.  Each clan, wanting its own identity had their own pattern for their sweaters.  The sweaters became intertwined with clan identity and were known by all on the island.  Aran sweaters have many different patterns of stitches, which indicated which clan you were from.  The patterns were closely guarded secrets and meant something to the families that invented them.  Down through many generations the patterns would not change. There is even a register of sweater patterns and a museum dedicated to the Aran sweater history!  This a great Irish gift to buy during the chilly winter months.

The Aran sweater is excellent for keeping warm and dry due to the heavy wool used in its making.  It is said that 30% of its weight can be absorbed with water before it feels wet, so it is quite water repellent.  These sweaters are breathable helping to keep the wearer at the same temperature and drawing water away from the skin, yet they are heavy for warmth.  Today the style of the sweater can be cardigan or the traditional crewneck pull over.

A good Aran sweater usually contains about 100,000 stitches.  It is important to take very close note of the pattern in a sweater you might buy to see the subtle differences between designs.  It may take 60 days for a knitter to complete one of these sweaters, although most are machine made now.  Hand stitched ones are usually expensive.

Today of course the sweaters are not as much connected to clans as they are the artist’s imagination.  Sometimes several clan patterns are combined and sometimes completely new ones are derived from Irish knot designs.  The original individual stitches had a meaning to the families that created them, cable stitch for the ropes of fisherman, diamond stitches depicting small farmer fields, Irish moss stitch for the seaweed used to fertilize and the zig-zag stitch for the many crossing pathways on the Aran Islands.

As far as purchasing a Celtic gift goes, you can’t go wrong with an Irish Aran sweater gift. They will last a lifetime if taken care of. The only danger is that you will surely want one for yourself!

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Would you like to browse more high quality unique Irish gifts? There are a lot more to be found in our Unique and Huge Irish store.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 5:11 pm and is filed under Irish gifts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.