Introduction to Stranded Knitting (Fair Isle)
Introduction to Stranded Knitting (Fair Isle)
May 08, 2020
Stranded Knitting is a popular technique for knitting with more than one color yarn. With this technique, the knitter holds all of the working yarn simultaneously. For each stitch in the row, they knit with the desired color and carry (or strand) the other colors behind the work. These loose strands on the inside of the work are called floats.
You may hear it referred to as “Fair Isle”, which is a specific type of stranded knitting and a term that’s often used interchangeably.
What exactly is Fair Isle?
Fair Isle (named for the island on which it originated) is one of the most well-known forms of stranded knitting. Traditionally, it is worked in the round, with no more than five colors in a piece and no more than two in any given row. It also limits the length of a run of any particular color — not allowing, for instance, ten blue stitches in a row.
So, how to determine if any given sweater or other project is "officially" Fair Isle? Unless the pattern actually originates from the Shetland islands, it’s hard to say! The term is popularly used to refer to stranded knitting in general — but stranded colorwork is present in knitting traditions all across the world.
In this reading series I’ll go over some of the key strategies and potential pitfalls of stranded knitting.
- Holding the Yarn (Tutorial): Learn how to knit with two strands of yarn at the same time.
- Yarn Dominance: Learn about yarn dominance and how to choose which color will be more prominent.
- Managing Tension: Learn how to avoid loose floats and puckered fabric with stranded knitting.
- Catching Floats (Tutorial): Learn how to secure long floats when you have a long run of a single color.
- Stranded Knitting Flat: Learn how to knit with multiple colors in a flat piece.
