Fair Isle

If you are working on a sweater with a zipper front you must go to Mary Beth’s blog to see how to do it step by step. She took the suggestions from my experience and put them to use with pictures and a detailed explanation. What a great job you did of both teaching and knitting, Mary Beth!

Now about Fair Isle…just think about this. The whole garment is knit...knit with maybe a little purling in the bands. It's all in the round and you don’t have to turn and work back plus, the sleeves (if there are any) are also picked up and knit down. Really, it’s very easy. The hard part might be following a chart but that isn’t too bad if you pick a sweater with simple repeat motifs (that you can memorize easily) for your first project and use a magnetic board to keep your place on the chart. If you blow up the charts so they are easy to read that will help, too.

Every row on a true Fair Isle is only two…just two colors and if you knit with one color in each hand (that might take a little practice) you can easily get into a rhythm. Grant Avenue has 16 stitch repeats (after the bottom section)…easy to memorize. It might take a little getting used to but Fair Isle is so beautiful with its mix of colors and patterns that it’s worth the effort to learn. It does take awhile to knit, usually around 3-4 months for me as I like to work on other things at the same time.

Remember the bit about having several things on the needles? That’s something portable, something easy, something challenging (for yourself!), and something for charity. Fair Isle is that perfect challenge for your knitting self. But a bit of warning about Fair Isle knitting…it can be addictive. If you want REAL Fair Isle help you should check out Nanette’s blog (and contest)…she’s a Master Knitter, you know.

Comments

[Susan]

Stop empowering me, Margene!! You're turning into a bad influence.

[Nanette]

I'm impressed if you can finish a sweater in 3 months. It usually takes me years because I do so many other things in that time.

I'm not a Master Knitter yet - it will be months before I hear back from the judges. I'd be surprised if they didn't ask me to do something over.