FAIR ISLE PATTERNS
OVER THE YEARS, certain features have become typical of the patterns used in Fair Isle knitting:
– Frequent colour changes within each row
– Diagonal lines
– Odd numbers of rows
– Symmetry
Although these characteristics create aesthetically pleasing patterns, they are practical, too. Frequent colour changes made across a round or row keep floats short, so that, most of the time, only stranding is used. Diagonal lines of colours help to produce a fabric that is more elastic, because the positions of colour changes vary throughout the fabric, whereas, when colour changes are in the same position on each round or row, the fabric is less elastic. Patterns with two lines of symmetry, which reflect from side to side and top to bottom, are relatively easy to remember and therefore to knit.
Most Fair Isle
