This might be controversial for some people, but the Aran style jumpers do knot have Ancient Celtic roots... I explore the origins of that misinformation in this video, and how this myth came to be as well as the legendary use of the jumpers and "clan patterns" to identify those lost at sea.
The myths came from two different places:
1. Heinz Edgar Kiewe in his book 'The Sacred History of Knitting' (1967) describes how the Book of Kells from 790 CE represents Aran-style knitting
2. John Millington Synge's play 'Riders to the Sea' which features a scene where one of the characters identifies a fisherman's sock when he is suspected to be lost at sea
These two notions seemingly became knotted together to create a myth that is still widely believed: that Aran sweaters are not only traceable back to our Ancient Celtic roots, but the patterns have specific meaning and have been passed down through generations to help identify clan members lost as sea...
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Further Resources:
Books
Aran Knitting by Alice Starmore
Irish Aran: History, Tradition, Fashion by Vawn Corrigan
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*IRISH HANDCRAFTING CLASS*
Link to my class at the Irish Pagan School, exploring more history and culture heritage of hand-crafting in Ireland: https://irishpaganschool.com/p/crafts
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