Argyle Day

What the day is

Argyle Day is observed on January 8. Argyle is the pattern of interlocking diamonds with thin diagonal lines crossing over them, familiar from socks, sweater vests and golf.

Origin and background

The pattern derives from the tartan of Clan Campbell, of Argyll in western Scotland, and the name follows the place. It moved from woven cloth into knitwear in the early twentieth century, and Scottish knitwear firms built it into socks and pullovers in the 1920s.

It went worldwide through golf. The Prince of Wales adopted argyle knitwear for the course, and the association with golf and with a certain kind of leisured respectability has never really let go. The same route carried the sweater vest, which is why the two turn up together.

The construction deserves more respect than the pattern's slightly stuffy reputation allows. Argyle cannot be knitted the way most colored patterns are. In ordinary colorwork the unused yarn is carried along behind the fabric until needed, but argyle's blocks are too large for that, which would leave long loose strands across the back. It is instead worked in intarsia, with a separate small bobbin of yarn for every single diamond, each twisted around its neighbor at the boundary to close the join. A modest argyle front can require a dozen or more bobbins dangling at once, and they tangle.

The thin diagonal lines are usually not knitted at all. They are added afterward by stitching over the finished fabric, tracing the path of the knitted stitches so the line looks knitted in.

How to take part

• Wear argyle socks, which is the easiest entry and the original garment.
• Look at the back of an argyle piece to see whether it was knitted or printed.
• Try an intarsia swatch if you knit. One diamond teaches the whole technique.
• Pair it with plain everything else, since the pattern does not share well.
• Read about Clan Campbell tartan and how weaving patterns became a knitting one.