The stitch that kept fishermen warm and interior designers very, very interested.
Cables were not designed for cushions or throws. They were designed for survival.
On the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland, fishermen wore densely knitted wool sweaters into conditions that were cold, wet, and unforgiving. The cable stitch, yarn crossing over yarn in thick twisted columns, created a fabric denser and warmer than any flat knit could manage. The beauty was incidental. The insulation was the point.
The oft-repeated story that each family knitted its own cable pattern to identify drowned fishermen is almost certainly myth, a romantic addition with no solid historical evidence. The real story is better: a working stitch that outlasted its original purpose by several centuries and migrated from the backs of fishermen to the interiors of some of the most considered homes in the world.
A cabled throw in undyed wool on a linen sofa is not nostalgia. It is a very old technology, correctly redeployed.
"The Aran Islands invented it for warmth. Your living room gets to inherit it.”
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