Fair Isle: Design Your Own
There are thousands of fair isle designs in the world, but often none of them are exactly what you would make if left to your own devices. It’s exciting to turn your imagination into reality and also satisfying to contribute a unique design to an historical tradition. I created this design to circle around my Tulip Socks, but fair isle can show up on yokes, cuffs, hats, mittens, anywhere!
Graph Paper
The most important thing you need is knitting graph paper. Knitting graph paper is specially proportioned to the stitches of your knitting, so that what you create on the paper won’t be distorted when you knit it. You’ll need to know the gauge of your knitting, both stitches and rows per 4 inches.
There are probably lots of web sites where you can download knitting graph paper, but a couple of free ones are Printable Paper and The Knitting Site, which offers options for several different stitch to gauge ratios.
Repeat Size
Now consider what size your design will be. The Tulip Socks, for example, are 72 stitches around, so whatever I designed had to divide into 72 evenly. I could have created a 36 stitch design that would have repeated twice around the sock, or an 18 stitch design that would have repeated 4 times around, etc. I decided on a 12 stitch design that repeats 6 times. It’s also common to use several repeat sizes in one design. For example, a smaller 3 stitch motif above or below the 12 stitch design would repeat 24 times.
Whatever you decide, mark the outer borders of your repeat size on the graph paper.
You can sketch your designs in Photoshop, or, if you prefer, with pencils, markers or paint. I’m a fairly neat knitter, but a seriously messy designer!
Centering
There are a few things to keep in mind as you sketch out your design. First of all, you may want to consider how the design will be centered on the garment. The right side of the design is also the beginning of the round. So, if the beginning of the round is centered in the middle of the back or front and you want the motif to be at the center of the piece, you need to start the design in the middle of the motif.
The design for Giacomo’s Baby Hat is a good example of this concept. See how the flower begins at the right side with the left half of the flower? This is so the flower will end up centered at the front of the hat.
2 Colors Per Row
In traditional fair isle, the rule is that there are never more than 2 colors per row. Unless you have a third hand, it’s a good rule. By following it, you’ll always have the yarn you need in one hand or the other.
Short Floats
When one color continues uninterrupted for awhile (everyone has his/her own definition of “awhile” – mine is 5 stitches, others say an inch), you need to wrap the stitch so the strand, or “float”, across the back doesn’t get too long. When designing your fair isle, you may want to minimize the occurrence of long stretches of one color.
For my Tulip Socks, I was concerned about toes getting snagged an long floats, so I made sure that there were never more than 5 stitches in a row of one color. That’s why the background color pops up as designs inside the tulip and the leaves.
Inspiration
The Art of Fair Isle Knitting is a wonderful encyclopedia of fair isle techniques, color ideas and theories, and traditional design. It’s a classic!
Victoria and Albert Museum‘s awesome collection online. I searched the term “knitted” and found 9 pages of unusual garments with historical and artistic value.
These are Spanish silk and silver gloves from the 16th century.
COLOURlovers is a cool website where color fans from around the world converge to share palette and pattern ideas. Track trends, read in-depth articles, chat with other color lovers, search palettes by keyword, endless color inspiration!
You must be psychic! I have just decided to learn how to do fair isle, and have bought a book and some Shetland yarn, and now here is a great tutorial to help me. Off to follow your links. Thankyou!
Thanks for that last link! It’s a great site 🙂
Jen
This blog is so cool, thanks a lot for all the wonderfull ideas
I have just having into fair your. If the any chance you might b have a library of notice , chartere and feed for all. Well at just basic
Hello, Susan!
Thank you so much for writing in! We’ve got some great Fair Isle patterns available. The Friendly Fair Isle Sweater is a basic fair isle pattern and great for beginners, https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2014/02/16/lauras-loop-the-purl-soho-friendly-fair-isle-sweater/. We also have a hat pattern that compliments this sweater, https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2016/01/07/friendly-fair-isle-hat/. Another wonderful and simple fair isle pattern is the Baby Girl Fair Isle Cardigan, https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2011/02/27/whits-knits-baby-girl-fair-isle-cardigan/.
If you have further questions, please let us know!
Happy knitting,
Kumeko
Could you or do you have a chart reading tutorial? I bought a kit with a chart to add one color but do not understand how to incorporate the chart. Help! You guys always have the best patterns and tutorials:)
PS: will merino script ever return? You have so many patterns for this yarn and I miss it!
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks so much for writing in! We do not currently have a tutorial for how to read a color work chart. Usually, the chart will be a portion of the stitches across the item that you are working on and you treat the chart as a repeat over the number of stitches on the chart. I hope that that makes sense. We will certainly keep your request in mind for the future.
Sadly Merino Script will not be coming back. While it was a lovely yarn, it was loved by a relatively small number of people.
I hope that this helps!
Cassy
Hello,
I am designing a fair isle sweater but need guidance on how to handle the pattern given that there will be decreases in the yoke. If you have a resource to teach me I ‘d appreciate it.
Thank you,
Sandra
Hi Sandra,
Thanks for the question. This sounds like an exciting endeavor! Unfortunately there is no official resource I know of for decreasing in a fair isle yoke, but I can certainly give you my two cents. First of all, it depends on what kind of design you have. Geometric, all-over yokes require that you spread out your decrease rounds but decrease frequently when you do. If you have a yoke with negative space in between shapes or motifs, you can decrease here and your decrease rounds will happen more often. Often, yoke sweaters do not continue the color work all the way up to the neckline, so after switching to one color you can really decrease a lot here to bring in the neck. I hope this advice works out for you!
-Adam
Do you have a design for hazelnuts in their husks?
Hello Hazel,
Thank you for reaching out! We do not, but if you design your own let us know ow it goes!
Happy knitting,
Marilla
Your link to the Japanese site re. graph paper is not safe. Your computer may be hacked. Suggest you change your passwords.
Julie
Hi Julie,
Thanks for reaching out I sincerely apologize, both for the confusion and the long delay in responding! While the message on the old graph paper link was a bit alarming, it appears that the web page had moved and then been deleted, resulting in an unusual error message. We have found some new sources for knitter’s graph paper, which you can find linked above in our updated post. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention!
Best,
Julianna