Summary  A traditional Aran sweater, with directions for making a cardigan and sleeves with steeks (cutting).

Additional Information

GAUGE: 5 sts to 1" over stocking-stitch. 5.45 sts to 1" over pattern.

MATERIALS: 7 4oz skeins of 2-ply Sheepswool (Bartlett’s 2-ply), or 6-7 4 oz. skeins of any yarn yielding the above gauge.  1 24", 1 16" circular needle of a size to give this GAUGE (size 4-8).

This month’s chapter covers traditional Aran design and the process of knitting a sweater circularly and then steeking the sleeves, as well as the front for a cardigan version.  Charts and written-instructions included for cables.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's elaboration on an Aran Sweater:

<em>Let us, therefore, design our own Aran, using the patterns that please us most.  There are beautiful pattern-books available which contain many hundreds of different and distinct patterns in the Aran idiom.  When you consider the combinations and permutations of so many possibilities, you can see that every knitter in the world could design a different sweater from various arrangements of these beautiful stitches.

From the back of Knitters Almanac:
"The year begins with an Aran sweater and proceeds to February baby things, a March Shetland, April blanket, May mittens and so on through the months, completing the zodiac with November moccasin socks and a December last-minute wishbone sweater."

This pattern first appeared in Newsletter #6, Spring 1961.