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

Charts

Charts are read right to left, bottom to top.  They have the stitch numbers and row numbers running along the bottom and up the sides of the chart. 

The charts below are all the same -- they are just presented in different formats.

Some charts are done in colour -- it's really easy to see the design, but I find that sometimes it's hard to discern exactly which yarn is to be used when -- especially if the design uses many shades of a similar colour.

An example of this type of chart -- see Ann Feitelson's "The Art of Fair Isle Knitting"

Some charts use separate symbols for each shade used in the design.  USUALLY, darker emblems are used for pattern stitches, and lighter symbols are used for background stitches.  If this is so, squint at your chart, look at it from the left, from the right, and the pattern will sometimes jump out at you.

This kind of chart will be accompanied by  a Legend which designates which symbol refers to which yarn shade.

This is the most common form of fair isle chart.  It can be intimidating at first -- but you can enlarge it to make it easy to read.

Some charts are strictly black and white -- which yarn to use on each row will be designated for you.

This method is used in "Sweaters from Camp" by Schoolhouse Press.

If I'm working from a chart entirely of symbols, I have a hard time "seeing" the design before actually knitting it.  I find that I comprehend the chart much easier if I have an image of the design in my mind, rather than blindly knitting. Sometimes I take a chart of symbols, and recreate it in Excel or Stitchpainter in a plain black and white chart - once I "see" the design, following the symbol chart becomes much easier.

Practice using a small chart -- use one of the ones above, or jump right into the BearlyKnits Fair Isle pattern, or make up your own.  Repeat it on the round -- you might have to adjust the number of stitches you have on your practice piece.  The sample chart that I've used has long stretches of both the pattern and background shades, so that you can practice catching your long floats!