Test Your Knowledge of Fair Isle Knitting Technique and Patterns!

Fair Isle Knitting: Techniques, Traditions, and Patterns

• Fair Isle is a traditional knitting technique that creates patterns with multiple colors.
• The technique is named after Fair Isle, one of the Shetland Islands, and gained popularity after the Prince of Wales wore Fair Isle jumpers in public in 1921.
• Traditional Fair Isle patterns have a limited palette of five or so colors, use only two colors per row, are worked in the round, and limit the length of a run of any particular color.
• The term "Fair Isle" is reserved for the characteristic patterns of Shetland, while "stranded colorwork" is applicable for the generic technique.
• Basic two-color Fair Isle requires no new techniques beyond the basic knit stitch.
• The simplest Fair Isle pattern uses circular or double-pointed needles, alternating colors every stitch.
• Traditional Fair Isle patterns have no more than two or three consecutive stitches of any given color, while modern variations allow for larger blocks of color.
• Fair Isle jumper construction involves knitting the body of the jumper completely in the round, with steeks worked across the armhole openings.
• Once the main body of the jumper is complete, the armhole steeks are cut open, and stitches are then picked up around the armhole opening and the sleeve is knitted down toward the cuff in the round.
• Since the 1990s, the term "Fair Isle" has been applied very generally and loosely to any stranded color knitting regardless of its relation to the knitting of Fair Isle or any of the other Shetland Islands.
• Fair Isle knitting uses only two colors per round and yarn is carried for a limited number of stitches across the back of the work.
• Common motifs in Fair Isle knitting are "OXO" shapes, "peeries," or simplified geometric shapes inspired by nature.