Introduction to Fair Isle Knitting

Fair Isle Knitting originated on Fair Isle near the Shetland Islands, a place that needs warm jumpers! It is a method of knitting with several strands of yarn at the same time to create intricate patterning. Many of the traditional motifs of Fair Isle work are instantly recognizable and continue to be popular in fashionable knit wear.

The method of Fair Isle knitting (also known as “stranded colour work”) is very rewarding when used in clothing and soft furnishing projects. It can add gorgeous edges to jumper sleeves, be used to create character patterns/ motifs on clothes or create a cushion to impress.

This two hour workshop gives you an introduction to the techniques used. You will learn how to hold two coloured yarns at once, how to introduce new colours to the work, how to hid the ends of colours you have finished using and how to strand threads along the back of work so that they do not become loose and catch or pull.

It is always nice to have a product to show for your time as well as gaining new skills to transfer to other projects. With this in mind, we will create a patterned glasses case whilst practicing the techniques. This will be a simple sleeve to protect a pair of glasses yet will be colourful, eye catching.