";s:4:"text";s:5933:"The Aran Islands lie at the mouth of Galway Bay, at the mercy of the relentless Atlantic Sea. The idea that there are meanings associated with the stitches used in Aran knitting derives from Sacred History of Knitting, an entirely fabricated book written by Heinz Edgar Kiewe. The blackberry stitch represents nature. The Aran jumper (Irish: Geansaí Árann) is a style of jumper that takes its name from the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. As a Welsh national, I know that similarly Welsh love spoons are carved into various symbols eg bells and hearts and chambers of wood with a ball inside, all made from one piece of original wood. Standard cables have the same number of plain rows between turning rows as there are stitches in the cable.The diamond stitch supposedly symbolises the small fields on the islands. For example, a typical Contrary to popular mythology, Aran knitting patterns were never used to assist in identifying dead fishermen who washed up onshore after accident at sea. However, actual historical documentation, including some of the oldest photography shot in Ireland, are at odds with this mythology.Nevertheless, knitters may find the following meanings entertaining and inspiring.The row on which the stitches crossed over each other is known as the turning row. Also the wheat sheaf pattern isn’t that from the fields on the island? While not being able to swim is less common now, it’s still not unknown, though of course safety standards otherwise have immensely improved.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.‘Apparantly’ is a good word. The Islanders were fishermen and farmers … A traditional Aran Jumper usually is off-white in colour, with cable patterns on the body and sleeves. Aran knitting is a relatively recent invention and the stitches were created for their decorative appearance by clever and skillful knitters because they looked nice, not to convey any meaning.The meanings that are generally attributed to Aran stitches have several origins:The best work on the history of Aran is a book by Alice Starmore, who picked though all this fog of made up stuff and got to the truth in her book, Aran Knitting.For those who are interested, these are the meanings most often associated with commonly found stitch patterns in Aran knitting.The most commonly seen Aran stitch is the cable, of which there are many variations. Cathleen confirms that she knitted it, not because of the design, but because of a specific mistake she made in the stitches.NORA: (who has taken up the stocking and counted the stitches, crying out) It’s Michael, Cathleen, it’s Michael; God spare his soul and what will herself say when she hears this story, and Bartley on the sea?CATHLEEN: (taking the stocking) It’s a plain stocking.NORA: It’s the second one of the third pair I knitted, and I put up three score stitches, and I dropped four of them.CATHLEEN: (counts the stitches) It’s that number is in it. Their coats will keep them warm and dry because of the lanolin at least for some time, long enough for the farmers to retreive them in a lot of cases. The Tree of Life stitch is frequently used as a motif of rites of passage, and of the importance of family. I took a class on Aran knitting and the instructor started by asking us what happens when a wool sweater gets wet. The first known example of Aran knitting appeared in the 1930s.The stitches that create the Aran knitting patterns are complex and the knitted goods are time-consuming to create. £4.80 £ 4. It is sometimes given a religious significance, symbolising a pilgrims path to salvation.Aran knitting patterns are very adaptable, and are widely used in many types of knitted items, including hats,Today, the patterns are being used by knitters around the world,Due to the success of cheap imports from the Far East from the 1970s onward, both the Irish woollen industry and the associated cottage knitting industry in Ireland which supplied hand-knit Aran-style items to the market were all but destroyed, and today only a few mills and handknitters continue the tradition. These are said to symbolise fishermen’s ropes. This story appears to have been derived from John Millington Synge's play, The idea that there are meanings associated with the stitches used in Aran knitting derives from Sacred History of Knitting, an entirely fabricated book written by Heinz Edgar Kiewe. Originally the jumpers were knitted using unscoured wool that retained its natural oils (lanolin) which made the garments water-resistant and meant they remained wearable even when wet. They would have worn plain garter or stocking stitched sweaters UNDER their macintoshes. As a result, a hand-knit Aran sweater can be quite expensive, and may well be worked in wool and yarn blends imported from overseas. Aran is a style of sweater that takes its name from the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. You’ll stay dry for a good time in a shower of rain, not so much when submerged in water.Fishermen, not just in Ireland, were somewhat resigned to their fate if things went wrong and they ended up in the water. Additionally, due to the amount of time these decorative sweater took to make they would have been saved as Sunday clothes. Synge’s one-act play, “Riders to the Sea”.