Many countries specialised in a particular type of knitting and some have given their name to it - e.g. France/Belguim = lace knitting; UK = hoisery; Scotland = fair isle and Ireland = aran knitting.
The following are just a very small selection of the traditional stitches:
Moss Stitch - said to reflect some of the seaweeds found on the west coast of Ireland and to symbolize abundance.
Cables sybolize the fishermans rope for safety and luck at sea.
Marriage Lines - double zig zag lines symbolized the ups and downs of married life.
Diamond when linked with cable stitches are said to link success in livelihood with hopes of prosperity.
Honeycomb to signify focus on work like a bee is focused on gathering nectar.One of our Crafty Ireland Team members is producing wonderful aran items for children http://www.etsy.com/shop/IrishWoolen This is one of her sweaters.
-What is the last book you read?
It's reached that time again when the blog post schedual is looking rather threadbare and neglected, so I'm looking for lovely folk to volunteer to write an article(s) for the blog. We can only keep this lovely community going with your help. It doesn't matter if you are a blog afficiando or a novice we'd like to hear from you!! If you are interested just convo Ruth at her supplies shop please.
At the last team meeting we talked lots about doing fairs and getting more involved as a group. So this led me to contact the Spiritstore project in Limerick City, the are running an event on the weekend of the 8-9th May, with lots of artists and performers all exhibiting work in one street. Because of the set-up that they have we are not allowed to sell items but they've asked the Etsy Ireland group to do a how-to class on the Saturday from 3.30-6.30pm. They've supplied a great indoor space right in the centre of the city, but we would need to supply materials. We can also set up a display area of things we have made, so we can advertise the team that way.
Her wonderful clutch bags are prominently displayed upfront in the mag and there's a link to her fab shop on Etsy.
Brilliant to see and congratulations to you, Monika! Hope it translates into many, many sales.
My name is Caroline and both my mother Eleanor and I make up Irish Woolen.
Being a knitting addict, Mum hates to sit down in the evening without a pair of knitting needles in her hands. After a while we have all become oblivious to the sound of the needles but it is funny to see visitor's reactions, they seem to be mesmerised by the speed at which she knits. With leftover wool she began making little baby items that she would give as gifts to family members and friends who had new babies. In our teenage years Mum taught us all to knit and despite successfully learning how to follow a pattern, none of us have ever come close to Mum's standard of knitting. The complexity of the Aran stitching is still beyond all our capabilities - we are happy to leave that to the expert! 
As grandkids began to appear and our own friends started to have children of their own, they would constantly request little knitted items for their babies. The spare room cupboards housed many of Mum's little creations and it seemed such a pity not to have them on display. More importantly we were running out of space! I found myself taking pictures of the cardigans and emailing them on to friends who were looking for special baby gifts. 
n really inspiring and encouraging. So Mum and I came to the agreement that I would take up knitting again and in return she would embrace the internet and learn more about Etsy and the online world in general. Mum has since come to grips with email and I have made some of the little baby hats that are listed in our shop. My good friend Allyson is a professional photographer and offered to take some photos with a lovely baby model - which has made a great difference to the overall appearance of our shop. 
"After the big floods of a few weeks ago I jumped on my bike and decided to show the Etsy Ireland Team where stressed city folk go. I haven't been on the Towpath for months (or as I call it 'toepath' due to a misunderstanding when I heard the name for the first time) and as soon as I was encountering the beautiful colours of fresh green and yellow gorse I realised how much I had missed it."
"On the towpath you get a strong sense of being away from it all and I felt like I was on a mini holiday after a crazy and stressful week. So I cycled rather dreamlike along the Lagan, listening to the tweets of the birds rather than looking at the tweets on the computer, avoiding joggers and walkers and dogs as I rode along, looking at the water, the clouds and interestingly shaped trees. Total bliss."
"I had never seen the water so high as that day, but then we had had exstream weather (rain , snow, flash flooding, hail, sleet) no wonder the swans which are usually gliding maestically on the water were absent. However the ducks were out and had fun in the water as usual."
" I took plenty of pictures, but as you will see, the light was constantly changing from sunny to cloudy and back to sunny. I kept thinking there would be another downpour, but for once, I was lucky.."
"When it is warmer I'm taking my knitting to the Towpath! Having a rather nice garden I got a bit lazy and just sit on our verandah to knit. But since I found plenty of 'knitting spots' to sit, knit and let the world go by I shall venture out again! And I felt inspired by the gorse - thre is a green and yellow 'gorse coloured and patterned' scarf in the making!"
There is a confusing plethora of helper tools to make your beading, knotting, coiling, and wrapping life easier. But you only need a few basics to start. The must-have pliers are a round nose and a chain nose or flat nose. These are an extension of my own fingers. Flat, nylon jaw pliers are handy for re-straightening bent wire. A side cutter will snip a neat edge on wire and string. If using memory wire though, get a stronger pliers designed for it.
If I’d invested in a course at the outset, I’d have saved myself a fortune in supplies, not to mention clumps of hair torn out with frustration! I managed basic wirework, but tying flush knots in beading string can be tricky. Ultra fine tweezers didn’t help much and I never did work out the magical bead knotter I’d splashed out on. I threw more dosh at crimpers for crushing crimps on tigertail. I felt more crushed than the crimps, and defeated, signed up for a class.
So I learned to crimp and cover using the boring old flat nose pliers, but also discovered I didn’t need the bent nose pliers, the super coiling pliers or other gizmos I’d squandered on. Master the basic tools and skills and you can go on to develop a wide range of techniques by yourself. The only other tools I now use regularly are a hammer and anvil for hardening wirework, a metal file and a ring mandrel. The ‘wonder’ tools lie sadly redundant.
Though I recommend attending a few basic workshops, you’ll find plenty of free tutorials on the internet. I learned to wrap briolettes via You-tube.
The lower the gauge number (ga), the stiffer the wire. 22ga and 24ga wire are pliable and good for learning. 28ga and 26ga are very fine for wrapping small briolettes with tiny holes. 20ga (aka .8mm) is ideal for wrapping cabochons, rings and a host of other goodies. Get used to these before moving onto the tougher, 18ga for stiff wrapping or findings. Square wire will lie flatter, but round is easier to manipulate. Keep all your cut-offs and scraps that are an inch or two long and use them for forming links and charms.
Stave off tarnish by storing metals in airtight plastic lunch boxes (new), sealable lunch baggies and recycled vitamin capsule containers.
Overspending on delectable beads and stones is tempting. You can refashion old or broken jewellery or repurpose everyday items like buttons, nuts and bolts or whatever inspires you. I love Magpie and Button’s creations. http://www.etsy.com/shop/magpieandbutton.
If internet shopping, focus on bead sizes. 2mm beads may look huge in the macro photos but are really micro-sized. The most commonly used round beads are from 6mm to 10mm. Strands of teardrops and pendant discs are more economical than buying singly or in pairs. Some suppliers will willingly sell you half a strand if you can’t afford a full one. I also find it cheaper and more reliable, to buy chain by the foot and attach clasps securely myself.
There are heaps of decent suppliers with reasonable prices on Etsy and many shops have a de-stash section. I am currently having fun wrapping sea glass collected by http://www.etsy.com/shop/irisoconnor. Having snipped all excess buttons off my clothes for custom-made rings, I’ve nabbed some colourful ones from http://www.etsy.com/shop/NicedaySupplies.
I'm still pretty excited about my studio because I've only moved in recently. I live in a tiny cottage where space is pretty tight, and I used to work at one end of a desk (The Messy End) while my husband, Gareth, worked on his computer at the other end (The Tidy End). All my crafty bits and pieces were in boxes on top of the wardrobe and I was spending a lot of time standing on a chair rummaging for ribbons and paper etc. I won't even go into the details of the War of the Cardboard which involved me squirreling away cardboard & packing boxes behind/under/in the wardrobe and Gareth subtly relocating it to the recycling bin when I wasn't looking!
So when my parents suggested I use their spare room as a studio I jumped at the chance, and before I knew it Gareth was enthusiastically helping me pack my boxes into the car. A trip to IKEA for some desks, shelves and boxes, and a day or two of assembly later my studio was ready to go. A throw and some nice cushions made a bed into a daybed - perfect for sitting and sewing, for visitors to sit and chat, or for Milo to snooze on (mostly for Milo to snooze on, in fact!).
I'm a bit of a magpie so I have lots of boxes filled with pieces of material, ribbons, different kinds of paper, cut outs from magazines and some things that defy classification that end up in a box with “bits & pieces” on the label. I can't resist pretty paper and at the moment I'm experimenting with lots of different types of vintage and scrapbook papers for making my 3D letters & boxes.
My ideas for the things I make often begin as gift ideas for my friends and family, and they usually occur to me at about 2am. They tend to start out really simple and snowball into something hideously complicated before ending up relatively simple and a little bit different. If I ever have an inspiration drought I'll have notebooks full of scribbles to fall back on! I think my training as an architect leads me to design things that are functional as well as looking attractive: my iPhone cases may be made of pretty ribbon but the ribbon is also a handstrap, and my 3D letters can also be used as little boxes. I like surprises, secret compartments and things that have to be figured out, so that tends to come out in my designs too. 
I work at two desks and I tend to switch between them a lot during the day. One has all the computer equipment where I draw and print templates for a lot of my designs, and the other is for the more hands on work like cutting out and assembling.
My window looks out over the park behind the house, where Milo takes me for walks, and beyond that I have a pretty spectacular view over Dublin City. I feel unbelievably lucky to have such a great space to work in. If I'm dreaming please don't wake me up, I like it here! I think Milo would like to bring you out to the garden for a game of fetch now, but if you'd like to see more of my work you can visit my website www.littlewhitedog.ie Thanks for visiting!
