Fair Isle is a traditional knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colors. It's named after Fair Isle, a tiny island in the north of Scotland, between the Orkney and Shetland islands.Some people use the term "Fair Isle" to refer to any colorwork knitting where stitches are knit alternately in various colors, with the unused colors stranded across the back of the work. Others use the term "stranded colorwork" for the generic technique, and reserve the term "Fair Isle" for the characteristic patterns of the Shetland Islands.
I have watched Tasha knit Fair Isle pieces for quite some time, and have always thought they were beautiful, but too complex for me to take on. I think it's time to give it a try! The piece I've chosen is a neckwarmer/cowl that's knitted as one piece in the round. Tasha and I spent an afternoon at Needle Nook, and this brown and pink yarn really caught my eye--I thought it would be more subtle than the rainbow yarn in the pattern! This is a picture of my progress, I think I'm just about done with the pattern, just have to do the brown border on the top. (It's much prettier in person! I'll take a better photo after it's been blocked)
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