difficulty in fulfilling orders from around the world. At the height of the fashion for Arans, the knitwear even inspired the British and French fashion scenes: Dublin-born London designer, Digby Morton (1906-83) featured Aran-“inspired” handknits for the first time in his 1955 autumn show in London, and by 1960, the Irish Times fashion editor was noting that the Irish hand-knit look was influencing Paris couture woollens. The Aran jumper had a fashion moment in July 2020, when Taylor Swift wore the garment in a photo-shoot that accompanied the release of her album, Folklore. Myths Part of the appeal and popularity of Aran Jumper comes from the array of myths propagated by Heinz Edgar Kiewe: The moss stitch is said to signify an abundance of growth. The blackberry stitch represents nature. The honeycomb is a said to be a lucky stitch, signifying plenty. Lattice or basket stitches to represent the old wicker basket patterns. The Ladder of Life and Tree of Life represent the stages of life. It is sometimes said that each islander (or his family) had a jumper with a unique design, so that if he drowned and was found, maybe weeks later, on the beach, his body could be identified. This misconception may have originated with John Millington Synge's 1904 play Riders to the Sea'', in which the body of a dead Islander is identified by his hand-knitted socks. However, even in the play, there is no reference to any decorative or Aran-type pattern. The socks are identified by the number of stitches, the quote being "it's the second one of the third pair I knitted, and I put up three score stitches, and I dropped four of them". Aran production today While in the past, the majority of jumpers and other Aran garments were knitted by hand, today the majority of items for sale in Ireland and elsewhere are either machine knitted or produced on a hand loom. There are very few people still knitting jumpers by hand on a commercial basis but hand knitted jumpers are still available at local craft initiatives. Machine knitted jumpers tend to use finer wool, cotton, or synthetic yarn and have less complex patterns, since many of the traditional stitches cannot be reproduced this way. They are generally flatter, lighter and less substantial, without the pronounced texture of a hand knitted or hand loomed jumper. Machine knitted jumpers will loosen with