Fair Isle Knitting

elsakarr
May 22, 2011
2 min read

Fair Isle knitting is a type of stranded color knitting originating in Fair Isle, which is the smallest, barely 3 miles long by 2 miles wide, and most southerly of the Shetland Islands. Stranded knitted is the practice of knitting with 2 stands of yarn in the same row, carrying the unstitched strand behind the work while knitting a stitch with the other strand. (There is a photo below of the wrong side of a Fair Isle sweater I’m working on showing the strands of yarn being carried behind the knitted stitches.)

There are some who think the patterns of Fair Isle stem from the Spanish who traded with the Shetlands and Fair Isle on their way to or from the Baltics. However, it seems more likely that the style was influenced by the nearby Baltic States. The practice of stranded knitting is common in Norwegian, Estonian, Icelandic and other Scandinavian countries. Characteristics that distinguish Fair Isle knitting from the former are changing of colors within a design resulting in stripes of different color ways and symmetry of the patterns. All early samples are based on the OXO pattern: a pair of lozenge shaped O’s separated by an X. The patterns have at least two, and commonly four, lines of symmetry; i.e. the patterns reflect both from side to side and top to bottom. These lines are perpendicular to one another and meet at the center of symmetry.

The development of the style of knitting developed in Fair Isle is also influenced by the breed of Shetland Sheep, a breed of small but sturdy sheep capable of withstanding the harsh climate and limited moorland pasture. Their fleece is a soft, fine and short wool, too weak for weaving, but excellent for knitting. The wool is pulled from the sheep instead of shearing it.

BTW: Unlike the practice in the Aran and Channel Islands, men rarely knitted.

Recommended reading: Alice Starmore’s Book of Fair Isle Knitting The Harmony Guide to Aran and Air Isle Knitting, edited by Debra Mountford Traditional Island Knitting by Pam Dawson