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The Only Wool Sweaters I’d Buy.*

The Iron Snail

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Woo! Wool sweaters. Who makes the best one? Today, we are trying to figure that out. From Filson's to Andersen-Anderson, to the gansey and beyond...we're in it.

Sweaters Shown:
Dale of Norway USA Ski Sweater
Search terms on eBay: lusekofte, setesdal, lice sweater, norwegian sweater, devold sweater

Handknit Gansey
eBay: guernsey, gansey, handknit
Jen: Instagram: jens_gansey_knits_
Other makers: https://www.flamboroughmanor.co.uk

Vintage Filson Guide Sweater

Filson Guide Sweater
https://www.filson.com/products/crewn...

J. Crew Oarsman Sweater (wool)

Harley of Scotland Sherpa Shetland Undyed Voe - Warm Black
https://bosie.co/products/harley-of-s...

Buck Mason
https://www.buckmason.com/products/ol...
https://www.buckmason.com/products/he...

GAP had some insane quality sweaters. Nowadays, they will be pretty old (holes), but they had a nice handknit run, I think in the 90s.
GAP Vintage Shetland Sweater
GAP Vintage Handknit Icelandic Sweater
search: gap handknit, gap scotland, gap shetland

Vintage Aran Sweaters (various)
eBay: cream fisherman sweater (best luck), handknit fisherman sweater, vintage fisherman sweater, aran sweater, irish sweater, cable knit sweater

Vintage L.L. Bean Made in Ireland Aran Sweater
eBay: ll bean ireland, ll bean scotland, ll bean lambswool, ll bean norwegian, ll bean fisherman

Wolf vs. Goat CHUNKY ROLL NECK SWEATER
https://ktku.co/Xs
(check out their membership. not an ad but its an insane deal if you do. i just want you to get the best deal)

Vintage Pringles of Scotland Cashmere
eBay: pringles of scotland cashmere, pringles of scotland lambswool

Used William Lockie Cashmere Sweater
https://baltzar.com/en-us/products/bo...

Andersen-Andersen Navy Sweater
https://andersen-andersen.com/collect...

Knickerbocker Ivy Sweater
https://ktku.co/Xr

L.L. Bean Organic Cotto Rollneck
https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/12379...

Dehen1920 1/4 Moto Zip
https://dehen1920.com/collections/1-4...

Vintage Peter Storm Sweater

Vintage Patagonia Sweater
eBay: plenty of great options -- look for a similar form to mine

L.L. Bean Made in Scotland Lambswool Sweater

General search terms: "wool sweater" and look for like 30 pages, handknit, handframed, fully-fashioned, italian sweater, scottish sweater, guide sweater, heavy sweater, thick sweater, lopapeysa, Best Made Co. sweater, woolrich sweater, pendleton sweater, made in USA sweater, made in hong kong sweater, 2-ply sweater

Anyway, goodbye.

Can I interest you in a hot bowl of following ME and The Snail in other places??
The Iron Snail Clothing Website: https://theironsnail.us
The Iron Snail Clothing Instagram:

/ theironsnail
My Instagram:

/ michaelkristy_
My Other Channel:

/ @michaelkristy1868
Need to reach out to me outside of Youtube?
info@theironsnail.us
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The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered. (written by Taylor, though Michael is sometimes known to talk about himself in the third person… xoxo)

20 Comments

@TheIronSnail Creator 10 months ago Pinned

ANNOUNCEMENT:  Dear YouTube. After the 40th sweater arrived at my house and I was on day 3 of editing, I realized something. I could have probably made this video into at least 5 others. They’d each release way faster than this one, I could go more in-depth, and we could nerd out even more. Took me a long time to realize that, but I’m going to try it! We’ll see how it unfolds.

@antine1279 10 months ago

As for the aran jumper: I've lived in Ireland for years, the reason why they are soft now is because irish wool isn't used. Irish sheep live in the climate, so their wool is coarse - nowadays that wool is used for carpets. Unprocessed wool from irish sheep was rough and oily (lanolin) so it was very protective from the elements. It was used by fishermen, but today's version is the capitalism version of it. Also as for the symbols and meaning, the fishermen's wives knitted the jumpers (obviously, although probably mothers and sisters etc for unmarried men, not really relevant for the point) and when it would get too warm, all the fishermen would take the jumpers off and put them on a pile. Because they were all the same, no-one knew which one belonged to who so the women started knitting patterns (symbols) so the men could recognise their own jumper. Over time, those symbols became family symbols, and nowadays are associated with families (clann in irish). Then the marketing stuff happened you were talking about. Just thought I'd add the info 😊

@Cynzttt 10 months ago

A small point of contention from a knitter. When you stuck your finger in the Aran sweater at 10:49 - its not because its knit loosely. It's because the act of cabling creates holes in the fabric because we have to rearrange the order in which we knit the stitches. You put your finger right in the middle of a honeycomb cable, its not loose its a characteristic of certain cabled fabrics.

@kilppa 10 months ago

As a nordic person, my grandmom knitted me one. It is the best one, no matter how your review ends.

@Soggz7785 9 months ago

My mother when she was 40, was given a spinning wheel. My father was a shepherd. The jumpers we had, were once running around our fields, on the back of his sheep. That was over 40 years ago. I still wear one of my fathers ‘sweaters’, or jumpers, as we call them here. It’s as good as the day my mother knitted it with the wool that she carded and spun, from the fleece that my dad sheared from the sheep. ( that we ate, by the way).
All the best.👍🏾🇬🇧

@mortona42yt 10 months ago

I feel like Neo, when he woke up from his Kung Fu training in the matrix. "I know about sweaters."

@GwynnTheRed 9 months ago

As a knitter, the idea of a handknit sweater being only 120 is craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy work, the labour cost alone would put it at atleast 2K for 20 an hour which isn't the wage of a skilled craft, nor couture. you are very lucky to have gotten a hand knit that cheap. Shetland knitters are also known for the incredibly delicate lace shawls that could fit in a ring they were so thin, as well as faire isle patterns and knitting are incredibly traditional. Cashmere is a very expensive fibre but it is also incredibly soft, which is why it is used. You could always do well for getting baby alpaca or alpaca in general as a ( slightly ) cheaper alternative. You were saying stockinette correctly.

@sorceress-crafts 10 months ago

As a knitting teacher I thoroughly enjoyed this video. It's pretty rare to see someone outside the craft to have such an in-depth knowledge of fibers and knit garment construction. Love this!

@damdamfino 10 months ago

Finally! Someone who did their research and didn’t half ass it. As a very experienced knitter, I’m throughly impressed.

@juliesheard2122 10 months ago

The Aran sweater would be knitted, "in the grease". The wool would be unwashed so that the lanolin would keep the water out, just as it does on a sheep.

@anveio 10 months ago

Brother I don’t know how else to say this but your videos feel like a campfire for my soul

@simonlynch4204 10 months ago

I never cared for fashion. At all. But you managed to spark my interest because I'm an engineer and a nerd and I mean this with all the respect I have... you sir are a massive nerd. I love it.

@lukemccaffrey 10 months ago

Was surprised you didn’t mention fair isle knitting when you mentioned Shetland? True the Shetland fleece is fantastic but the fair isle jumper is a work of art. Particularly when hand knitted.

@Qs_Tube 10 months ago

THE HAND KNITTING ASSOCIATION OF ICELAND is where you get amazing woollen jerseys. Made to order

@fridrekr7510 10 months ago (edited)

Speaking of invented myths surrounding the Aran sweater, there's a lot of similar ones surrounding the Nordic sweaters.
First of all, the sweaters aren't really Icelandic in the first place, they're Faroese and many Faroese knitters are pretty annoyed that their national style of sweater has generically become known as "Icelandic sweaters" (and apparently also "Norwegian sweaters" in USA which is even further from the truth). The specific design with a half circle pattern around the neck, which you call an "Icelandic Lopapeysa" is a modern Norwegian invention from the 1930s, which was inspired by traditional Inuit folk costumes from Greenland, and were made during a time where Norway tried to claim Greenland and this design was part of that campaign to invent a Norwegian claim on Greenland. It was later adopted as a symbol of Icelandic nationalism despite having no Icelandic ties, being created by a Norwegian who was inspired by Greenlanders...
Real traditional patterned Faroese sweaters usually only have a simple repeating geometric pattern and often only uses the natural colours of the wool (cream, brown, and grey) and is quite similar to what you called a "Norwegian sweater" (which is actually originally Faroese). These patterned Faroese sweaters were called "skipstroyggja" literally ship sweater underlining their origin with fishermen.
There is also another style of Faroese fisherman sweater which is solid dark brown and has buttons on the left shoulder to help put it on over your head, which is called "myrkamorreyðum troyggja" meaning dark brown sweater.
Scandinavian (as opposed to Nordic) sweaters are more in the style of the Norwegian Lusekofte though similar styles existed all over Scandinavia. They often had buttons on the neck like a henley shirt and striped patterns (like a Breton shirt) were very popular along with stars and other geometric shapes. They were usually made in white and blue or white and red, and of course white, red, and blue specifically in case of the modern Norwegian sweaters because of nationalism, though the old examples typically didn't mix blue and red. These sweaters were usually worn by farmers, not sailors, and are preserved in some places as part of the folk costumes.
Lastly, I there is also a Danish variant of the dark blue gansey sweater which has a bubble pattern on the chest and upper arms that the brand SNS Herning at least claims to have invented, and has since been copied by a few others. I don't know whether these were ever actually home made or just commercially produced, but they have been around since at least since the 1920s and thus relatively old even if they aren't truly a traditional sweater. These are usually called "sømandstrøje" meaning seaman sweater.

@Unicorn_Rancher 10 months ago

As a knitter (currently working on a stranded vest as I watch this video) I have to say you have done a phenomenal job as a non knitter explaining these things without dumbing it down. Which is so refreshing especially coming off of the recent SciShow debacle and the first few episodes of The Game of Wool.
I appreciate your research and presentation. And has someone who knows a lot about this subject, I feel more confidence in what you present in all of your other content.

Thank you!!!!!!

@Shokskaal 10 months ago

You forgot the actual ultimate wool sweater, the Austrian Military Alpinist wool sweater.

@earlgreyknits1178 10 months ago (edited)

I’m a knitter and found this video to be a joy to watch. Thank you. :)
Also I believe the stitch on the Patagonia sweater is a half fisherman’s rib or half brioche stitch. Each is worked differently but they are almost identical in their end result depending on the tension of the knitter. But that’s how you get the “knits” on one side and the “squished knits” on the other that you were describing.

Half fisherman’s rib is a stitch where the knits on one side are essentially undone by knitting into the row below. This causes the stitches on either side to appear “squished” on the reverse side of the fabric because for each knit stitch on one side there are two on the other.
Half brioche is basically the same thing but instead of undoing a knit by knitting below you just set it up as an undone stitch on the fist pass to begin with and then resolve it with a knit stitch on the second pass.

These two stitches are ticker than regular rib because each row is essentially knit one and a half times. This takes up more yarn to make but results in a loftier knit fabric that doesn’t necessarily look or act like a rib even though it technically is.
Hope that helps.

@SteveHameister 10 months ago

Michael does for specific brands on ebay what Josh Scott does for specific guitar pedals on ebay. Drives up the price for like 2 months before people forget about it and come to their senses.

@krisjonesuk 10 months ago

I think you may have misunderstood what “oiled wool” is. My understanding is that for most wool, the natural oil, Lanolin, is washed out before it is spun into yarns (Lanolin is useful byproduct that’s used extensively in other products including cosmetics). With oiled wool, the Lanolin is retained. I believe it makes for an even more water-resistant fabric than ‘normal’ wool. Oiled wool sweaters appear to be popular among the UK yachting community, hence they are sold by yacht chandlers like Arthur Beale and Co.

The sweaters where it doesn’t matter which is front or back have what is known as a “boat neck”.