Myth-busting the Aran sweater storyfrom @theironsnail

Transcript

Know that these sweaters were commonly used to identify fishermen's bad that were lost at sea? I didn't either. It's a myth. It's not true. Also, if this is a fisherman's sweater, why is it white? Traditionally, fisherman's sweaters were blue. Even films made in Ireland in the nineteen thirties showing fishermen didn't show them wearing this sweater. They wore different ones. The Irish Aaron sweater is actually thought to be based on a Scottish Gansey fisherman sweater that we just did a short on. Okay. And now check out this perfect storm. In nineteen o four, a play comes out called Riders to the Sea by James Millington Singh. In that play, a sister identifies her brother's body that was washed up on shore because she knit him a pair of socks that had a dropped stitch. That is where the identification legend came from for the fishermen. In 1938, Heinz Kiva writes the good, The Sacred History of Knitting. In that book, he says all of these patterns on rank knits are from ancient Celtic symbols. That is not true. Also in the nineteen thirties, a woman by the name of Muriel Gaon opens the country shop in Ireland where she sells Aran sweaters and references both of those pieces of folklore rank also helps the people making the sweaters make them more attractive to people like tourists. The development of the Rank sweater probably started in the late eighteen nineties to the early nineteen hundreds and became very commercially successful in the nineteen thirties to the nineteen tier. Best, fisherman sweaters as worn by fishermen for their intended use stopped being popular around the nineteen tier. So these were designed to be photographed well, to stand out, to be striking, and to be sold. But the people that sold them, they were not trying to lie to just sell you something. Ireland, and more specifically, the Aran Islands worse not doing well at that time. So Ireland came together and said, let's stimulate the economy in any way we can. Let's try it with the cottage industry where women can knit sweaters to help their households. A lot of Irish people left Ireland and they went to America. So Ireland was saying, hey, Irish Americans, remember us? Your home? Aren't you nostalgic? Look at these waves and the crafts that we make. They're so beautiful and cozy. Don't you wanna visit and put money into our economy? Arran better.