Crana Handknits Ireland Ltd., known usually as Cranaknits, has been producing hand knit sweaters with an “Irish flavour” for 40 years.  We supply shops in Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, America, France, Sweden and Japan as well as producing exclusive ranges for designers.

Rosaleen Hegarty founded the company in the response to the need for work for women and girls in those years and is still driving the company.  Many of those who started knitting for Crana then are still knitting today. 

The forte of Cranaknits is that Rosaleen designs and also writes the patterns for the sweaters.  This ensures the quality and the standard of the knitting.  Our collection is mainly based on the traditional Irish Aran stitches with a few items in Linen for the modern look. 

We use only natural fibres and have our wool spun specially for us so that it is softer and slightly lighter than the older qualities.  This is available in 3 shades - Natural (off white)  Turf (the black Sheep ) and Oatmeal (a mixture of the white and turf). The Merino wool is also spun and treated so that it is machine washable at 30 degrees. 

Crana Knits is a Cottage Industry – the women knit at home. We design and market the sweaters. The average age of our knitters is 50 to 90 years old.

Modern living has decreased the number of people who knit for companies but has increased the number of hobby knitters. In response to this trend we are shortly introducing www.cranaknitkits.com where you will be able to purchase our patterns and wool to knit your sweater.

To help you with the intricacy of the Aran stitches we will have www.eireknit.com the Irish Knitting Club, a web based tutorial of Irish Aran knitting.