YARNS

Simply Shetland
Silk & Shetland Lambswool

Designs by:
Anne Featonby

She Ewe Knits

Guest Designs:

Lorraine Condotta
Twisted Traditions

FI 101 - the absolute basics

of the two-handed fair isle technique

"How to hold the yarns"

Note that the thumbs of either hand support the needles -- the hands lightly grip either needle end, and both hands have a yarn tensioned over the pinkie, coming over your index finger.  This may feel uncomfortable at first -- but with practice, it will come naturally.

Notice that the right hand holds the darker shade -- we will use this as our background shade. The background shade is OVER the yarn being held in the left hand -- the lighter shade which we will use as our pattern shade.  The lighter shade is coming from UNDERneath the background shade. 

When knitting around, the thumbs and middle fingers of each hand help to move the stitches around your circular needle.  My fingers work automatically -- and every once in a while I stop and do a major sliding of stitches around the needle -- you'll find you need to do this -- either when working a large number of stitches on a long needle (the body of a sweater) or a smaller number of stitches on a shorter needle (a sleeve perhaps).

After great deliberation, I decided that I couldn't really demonstrate how to hold both the yarns in one hand, either your right or left.  I don't knit like this, and how you hold your yarns is a very personal thing. 

 I highly recommend trying the two-handed fair isle method -- it keeps the yarns from tangling, and divides the work between your two hands.  If you absolutely cannot (or don't want to) knit with both hands -- that's entirely your choice, you just have to strand the pattern colour on your middle finger (so that it is below your background shade) and bring it into play when necessary. 

Proceed to "Picking vs Throwing"