Fair isle knitting technique for the experts

Fair Isle is located in the far northern part of Scotland and lies half way between the Orkney Isles and the Shetland Isles. Fair Isle is a small island which has a very few resources and raw materials. Hence many people in the island, mostly women earn their living through knitting. The Fair Isle knitting technique got its name from this island and was developed originally in the Shetland Isles. This knitting technique creates unique and distinctive patterns that are popular in the region. Since the patterns are stranded the Fair Island knitting usually doesn’t include more than two to three stitches in any of the colour used.

When a Fair Isle knitting pattern has a block that is of one colour and is very long, then it means a much longer strand of the other colour as well. This could be caught on either a button or similar item easily. Typically the Fair Isle knitting is carried on in the round and people normally make use of the Shetland jumper-weight yarns at about 8 stitches to the inch. To create or make a sweater by using the technique of Fair Isle knitting, one must sew or fasten the work at the place where goes the arm holes. After this the armholes are made by cutting down the knot fabric. The cuts to make armholes are known as steeks among the American knitters however those in the Shetland region don’t use this term.