Fair Isle Knitting

After a workshop where three local knitting guild members taught us an introduction into Fair Isle knitting, it is no longer intimidating.  After four decades of knitting, I think perhaps it could become a new obsession for this old dame.

Fair Isle knitting began on the Shetlands islands centuries ago.  It is an excellent way to use up bits of yarn used for previous projects.  Very Scotch.  The Prince of Wales popularized this form of knitting when he appeared in Fair Isle vests in 1921.

On display at Shetland Museum

 

Fair Isle knitting uses only two colors per row with one of the two colors becoming the background color.  This child's jumper (termed sweater in the US) was from 1924.  It was made for a child, and as she grew, cuffs  and the bottom were lengthened by adding on more knitted rows in brown.  Again,very economical and a method to make the most of this jumper as it could last a girl through her primary years in school.

These ladies are knitting while we happened by, and were king enough to let me snap their pictures.  Shortbread had been packed for their tea.  Their shortbread was packed in the white plastic container.

After a workshop teaching us how to knit Fair Isle, manipulating two colors of yarn in one hand, I was able to produce this writer that will be turned into an iTouch holder.

Fair Isle is a traditional knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours. It is named after Fair Isle, a tiny island in the north of Scotland, that forms part of the Shetland-islands. Fair Isle knitting gained a considerable popularity when the Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII) wore Fair Isle tank tops in public in 1921. Traditional Fair Isle patterns have a limited palette of five or so colours, use only two colours per row, are worked in the round, and limit the length of a run of any particular colour. Traditional Fair Isle patterns have a limited palette of five or more colors, only two colors per row, and are worked in the round. (Wikipedia)

We visited Doreen Brown's shop and saw these swatches on the wall for selection by the customer just in case one did not prefer what was available.

The Burland Croft and Scalloway Museum

We visited Tommy and Mar Isbister's croft.  The link to their croft is here: http://www.burlandcrofttrail.co.uk.  A croft is a small area of land used for food production.  Background reading gave an excellent overview of how crofting developed centuries ago through the book The Crofter and the Laird  by John Mcafee.

Pictures from the croft:

A Shetland pony and then with her little one:  (perhaps that tiny one was tired of being photographed)

A gorgeous rooster:

The Scalloway Museum was a highlight.  The museum is new whereas artifacts go back to the Norse times.

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Viking boat:

 

Gracious volunteer staff at the Scalloway Museum

 

A Shetland Bus boat used during WWII on display.  An excellent history of the Shetland Bus operation is written in the book The Shetland Bus by David Howarth.

Shetland Lace Knitting Workshop

Three women from this part of the world representing the knitting guild in Lerwick shared their lace knitting expertise and showed some of their beautiful shawls and scarves made from one ply wool.

The knitter above, Kathleen Anderson, can make something the size she shows below in about six weeks.

Close ups of lace:

Sandra Manson was commissioned to knit the Royal Baby's Christening Shawl.  This quote is from The Shetland News:

The robe was made of Shetland supreme one-ply worsted spun yarn, which is the nearest to homespun it is possible to get. Although the full-length garment only took two weeks to make, it took six weeks to plan.

This was our supplied yarn