Here are some more photos to show the difference between Fair Isle knitting and other types of stranded color knitting. I'm trying not to get too complicated but purists only consider a garment to be Fair Isle if Shetland yarn is used and the pattern has no long floats (spots where you carry an unused yarn for a long time). Fair Isle charts are usually very symmetrical as well.

It does get confusing because there are similarities between Fair Isle colorwork and other types, especially other types of European stranded color knitting which evolved at the same time. I've even seen traditional Fair Isle patterns that did not use the color changes between the foreground and/or background patterns. Fair Isle does use the X and O patterns pretty exclusively and they often intersperse these with smaller patterns called peeries. I've never seen a Fair Isle garment that only used two colors.

Fair Isle Chart (Look at the large X at how the background colors change symmetrically)



Not a Fair Isle Chart (Estonian) even though multiple colors are used

Fair Isle Tams with lots of beautiful subtle color gradations

Not Fair Isle tams - although multi-colored each chart pattern section has only 2 colors

Stranded Color Knitting has as an in-depth annotated bibliography but I'll briefly recommend 4 books.

Sheila McGregor's Traditional Fair Isle Knitting (very inexpensive Dover reprint)
Carol Rasmussen Noble's Knitting Fair Isle Mittens and Gloves (easy to find although some chart errors in the patterns)
Ann Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting (probably out-of-print by now??)
Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting (excellent book on the subject but you'll most likely have to sell one of your children to get a copy)

Margene asked me to do a blog entry discussing the difference between Fair Isle knitting and other types of stranded color knitting. I've talked about this here several times before and I discussed it in the Stranded Color Knitting booklet.

I'll use the analogy of bread baking. The French are master bread bakers and take their bread very seriously. Some American sourdoughs and supermarket breads call their products "French" bread. They use the term because the bread is crusty or shaped similarly to traditional French breads. But calling all stranded color knitting Fair Isle knitting is more like calling a Jewish challah or Indian naan a "French" bread.

Fair Isle is the southernmost island in the Shetland Islands and is between Norway and Scotland. In the distinctive style of Fair Isle knitting the foreground and/or background colors often change in a single pattern chart. This usually doesn't happen in other types of stranded color knitting. (An exception is the cover purse on Andean Folk Knits, where the foreground color changes from red to orange to green.)

Fair Isle:



Not Fair Isle (Latvian):



Fair Isle:



Not Fair Isle (Norwegian):



Fair Isle:



Not Fair Isle (Peruvian):

The heart theme sock is stalled because I can't decide on what colors I want to add. I am also working on one of the Great American Aran Afghan squares done in the round but I have to rip out a few rows and figure out a mistake I made.

So what do you do when all your knitting is stalled? Start something new!


Here is the beginning of the Dad's Easy Cable Sock pattern from Socks, Socks, Socks. I am using size 4 dpns and Peruvian Highland wool but I'm not completely positive they will be wide enough for my narrow feet. This pattern has no purl stitches so it is much less stretchy than most cable patterns.

I'm starting a sock with a heart theme (a little late I know). I need to add more colors and I may do a lace foot. We'll see...

Peaches wishes everyone a belated Happy Valentine's Day! DH brought me flowers and she felt it necessary to attempt to eat some of them. Bosco is still hanging in there and enjoying lots of TLC although we still have no diagnosis.

I'm just about finished with the second sock. It seems like it took me forever to finish them but I'm looking forward to my next project. I don't actually know what my next project will be but I'm looking forward to it anyway.

I recently googled the word "color" and found some interesting web sites.

Color Psychology This web site goes beyond the usual stuff and tells you that opera singers have meltdowns more often in yellow rooms and that weight lifters can lift more in blue rooms.

Causes of Color If you have a child who asks a lot of questions like "Why is the sky blue?," you need this scientific web site.

Online Color Scheme Generator Pick a color from the large grid and you'll automatically get a selection of many colors that work well with it.

Test for Color Blindness

Color Lab Select a few colors and see how they look together.

Color Matters This is a comprehensive web site on everything color-related including a bulletin board.

Here's what my shortened version of Liivi's sock from Folk Knitting in Estonia looks like. I'm doing the colorwork on the second sock and am leaving the plain part for this weekend when I can't concentrate.




Not being able to concentrate seems to be a theme for me lately. I keep telling DH I'm losing brain cells on a daily basis. I'm dying to come up with a Valentine's sock with red and hot pink and purple in lace and colorwork but I'm not sure if I can manage it this weekend with a sick cat and a husband who is home for 3 days. I still hope to get to work on the Starmore pillow but I have to change the number of pattern stitches first to accomodate for my gauge.