We are delighted to present the new Hand Knit range of Aran Knitwear made by Carraig Donn who are based in Westport County Mayo not too far from the Aran Islands.

Carraig Donn, Ireland’s leading knitwear brand, is celebrating 50 years of crafting beautifully designed garments in Ireland.
The company was set up in 1965 by Padraig and Maura Hughes with three intentions: to keep the local crafts alive, to provide employment for the local community and to provide their children with something useful to do during the long summer holidays. It remains a family business and has grow and evolved over the years to become an icon of Irish knitwear treasured by its loyal clients all over the world.

Our first featured garment is the Aran Hooded Sweater pictured above. A cosy over the head sweater with 3 side buttonsfor easier and comfortable access for little wrigglers.

Hand knitted with 100% Merino Wool , it’s soft to the touch, warm and most importantly machine washable on a cool wool wash cycle , check your machine has the setting.

Mixing the blackberry stitch with the trelis stitch representing nature and the intertwining strands of life.

Available in 3 styles and 3 sizes from 12 months up to 3 years all in the natural.

Above is the Baby Collar Cardigan, an adorable hand knit Aran cardigan with a gentle honeycomb and blackberry stitch. Easy to put on and comfortable to wear. Prices start at €49.99 and we also have a wide range of machine made arans in stock and online.

There aren’t many books you will read in your lifetime that are hard to put down, you can finish them on one or two sittings and thirdly despite being written over a hundred years ago are still timeless.

Colm Tóibín remarked on  J.M Synge’s The Aran Islands that “unlike most travel books of 100 years ago, it has not dated at all”.

It is a fascinating insight into life on the Aran Islands at the turn of the nineteenth century. Synge himself a young man just shy of 30 was at a crossroads in his life, a writing career that was not flourishing , various experiences around Germany and Paris had left him wishing to return home. An uncle of his had spent 3 years on InishMore as a Church of Ireland minister, thereby giving the young J.m Synge an opening and introduction into life on the Aran Islands.

Over 4 years J.M spent  winter and summer seasons on the Aran Islands, favouring Inishere the smallest of the 3 islands, where he felt welcome and at home.

His reflections of the locals, their rituals, their traditions and folklore has a major impact on his outlook on life. He never once looks down on their at times primitive ways and notions, if anything he seems fascinated and impressed by them.

Most notably the weekly curragh (small man made vessells) crossings between the islands or to the mainland where men and women took their life in their hands at every moment was something to be revered and respected.

It is from this you can gather the understanding of why fishermen never learnt to swim, they saw the sea as Gods and if their time was up, their time was up.

Which evolved to the knitting of the Aran Sweaters to identify these men who were drowned at sea , often washing up on another island, which at the time was like another country such was the regional differences between the Aran Islands.

Synge followed local practices such as harvesting Kelp which would be sold on the mainland as well as the transportation of cattle to the mainland for the winter months which was of such a dramatic nature it would attract large crowds of spectators.

The islanders clothes were often all the same colour , a kind of sack cloth tweed brownish colour. The Aran Sweater beginning to be the choice of clothing for Fisherman at this time to keep fishermen warm and dry from the elements that would literally batter the islanders.

Synge recorded in the Aran Islands that , “In Aranmor [the largest of the Aran Islands] many of the younger men have adopted the usual fisherman’s jersey, but I have only seen one on this island.”

Showing again how things differed among the islands, thus recording the Aran Sweater at the end of the 1890’s.

It’s a timeless and wonderful read we would highly recommend.

If you are looking for something warm and comfortable for the little people in your life look no further than an Aran Sweater for kids.

Our manufacturers have created some very contemporary styles for children that are durable, warm and fashionable, pictured above is the Aran Hooded zipper available in our store from ages 12/18 months up to 4/5 years. This style also comes in blue is a very popular product for us.

As with the adults, the classic Aran style has always proved the most popular style for kids, staying with the classical design, made using 100% Merino Wool this style is soft to the touch , great for kids to wear and the neutral colour goes with most things.

Very popular for girls is the Aran Cardigan pictured above available in sizes 12/18 months right up to 8/11 years , a very versatile garment this can be warm as a coat in spring/summer and makes a great layering option for kids in winter, also in 100% Merino wool .

We have had some wonderful photos sent to our Dublin store over the years of entire families dressed in Aran Sweaters often covering 3 generations! If you have any just send them to us @ info@donegalshop.ie

We’ve all heard the Aran Sweater was named after the small cluster of islands off the coast of west Ireland , but did you know that the Aran was also knit all over the country?

It’s beginnings stemmed from the need of the island men fishing to have something warm and waterproof to protect them from the elements. As many fishermen could not swim , believing if it was there time God would take them and what use would being able to swim be they had a means of identification through their aran sweater of either their family name or their parish of origin.

As hand-knitting moved to the mainland in the 1950’s and 60’s the Irish Government sent clothing manufacturers to the Aran Islands to teach the hand knitters how to knit to international sizing standards, we can’t imagine that went down too well!

The Aran sweater reached epic heights of fashion that it retains today with the likes of Vogue featuring it on its’ covers with huge stars such as Steve McQueen & Grace Kelly sporting an Aran.

Just before Christmas British Vogue did a wonderful piece on the Aran as the perfect Christmas jumper and we couldn’t agree more! It is truly a classsic forever.