Summary The Aran hat is actually a gauge swatch for an Aran sweater. Pattern directions are to cast on half the number of stitches needed for the body of an aran sweater, which will allow knit to check gauge, and create an aran hat out of the swatch. Even if your gauge is off, the hat is bound to fit someone.

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, or 6-7 4oz 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:
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.