| Fair Isle (technique) |
Article Index for Fair |
Website Links For Fair |
Information AboutFair Isle (technique) |
|
The traditional Fair Isle works had a limited palette of five or so colours, used only two colours per row (though the whole piece frequently had more), was worked in the round, and followed some additional rules regarding how long a run of any given colour could be. Some knitters still claim that only pieces that follow these rules are "true" Fair Isle, but in modern usage the term is generally understood to include any pattern that uses the same general idea. Other techniques for knitting in colour include Intarsia , Slip-stitch Colour , and Double Knitting . HOW IT'S DONE Basic two-colour Fair Isle requires no new techniques beyond the basic knit stitch. (The purl stitch is not used.) At each knit stitch, there are two available "active" colours of yarn; one is drawn through to make the knit stitch, and the other is simply held behind the piece, carried as a loose strand of yarn behind the just-made stitch. Knitters that are comfortable with both English style and Continental style knitting can carry one colour with their right hand and one with their left, which is probably easiest, although it is also possible to simply use two different fingers for the two colours of yarn and knit both using the same style. The simplest Fair Isle pattern is as follows: using circular or double pointed needles, cast on any number of stitches. Then, just keep knitting round and round, always alternating colours every stitch. If you started with an even number of stitches, you will end up with a vertically striped tube of fabric, and if you started with an odd number of stitches, it will be a diagonal grid that appears to mix the two colours. Traditional Fair Isle patterns normally had no more than two or three consecutive stitches of any given colour, because they were ''stranded'', and too many consecutive stitches of one colour means a very long strand of the other, quite easy to catch with a finger or button. A more modern variation is ''woven'' Fair Isle, where the unused strand is held in slightly different positions relative to the needles and thereby woven into the fabric, still invisible from the front, but trapped closely against the back of the piece. This permits a nearly limitless variety of patterns with considerably larger blocks of colour. REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|