My obsession with fair isle knitting continues! Having successfully completed my first Christmas ball, I have got a real taste for fair isle. I am not just talking stranded knitting, I mean proper fair isle with Shetland wool and traditional motifs. I just love it. (Be warned, I am about to do some serious enabling in this post…!)
I signed up for Craftsy’s Fair Isle Vest – Stranded and Steeked class and am about half way through. It’s brilliant. Mary Jane Mucklestone is a fabulous teacher. This woman is a serious fair isle geek (I mean this affectionately). She is the writer behind 200 Fair Isle Motifs (Amazon at the bottom of this post) so she obviously knows her stuff. Incidentally, she knitted 200 swatches for the book. 200 hundred swatches! I moan at the prospect of knitting one…
The class is really worth checking out, even if you don’t intend to knit the vest. I love the pattern of the vest and the steeking element intrigues me, but to be honest, it’s not really the right shape garment for my body type. However, I am still learning loads from the class. I intend to knit a hat, perhaps a cowl, using the vest pattern. I am learning about the various ways of holding your yarn for fair isle, the joy of swatching (honestly) and most excitingly, how to steek. As with all Craftsy classes, the tutor is available to answer your questions through the Craftsy platform.
At the time of writing, the class is priced at £19.79 (reduced price) so do check it out. To find out more click on the image at the top or the foot of this post or click this link: Fair Isle Vest – Stranded and Steeked.
So what’s my next fair isle project? Well apart from the next Merry Knitalong Christmas ball (please join the KAL!) I am contemplating a pretty major project. The lovely Chloe from Sparkly Shoes Are Faster blog has just started knitting Kate Davies’ Rams and Yowes blanket having successfully completed the Sheep Carousel tea cosy. Chloe is well and truly getting me back for all the enabling I have been responsible for in the past, as she is encouraging me to consider the blanket. I may compromise by opting for the Sheep Heid hat instead. Who knows! I am not rushing into it. I had cast on Selbu Modern as my first fair isle project but frogged in in favour of my Christmas ball.
Whatever I go for, I was thrilled to note that my lovely website sponsor, Great British Yarns, as a fabulous stock of Jamieson Shetland wool. So when I do make the decision, I know they will be there to enable me with lovely yarn…!
Here are those Amazon links for you:
Amazon UK: 200 Fair Isle Designs: Knitting Charts, Combination Designs, and Colour Variations
Amazon US: 200 Fair Isle Motifs: A Knitter’s Directory
And here’s the Craftsy link (click the banner):
PS: please note that the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you purchase anything I recommend by clicking a link or banner, I get a teeny tiny commission. Any commission I earn goes towards the running costs of the blog and podcast, so it’s a nice way for you to support iMake if you want to. And just so you know, I only recommend things that I really, really like.
I’d go for the hat first – a woman in my knitting group has made the blanket – it sounds fairly hard going
But, have you seen Kate Davies latest Ursula cardigan? I’ve got my eye on that – simple Fair Isle and steeking – sounds like fun!
I am inclined to agree Libby
Oooh Ursula?? Looking it up now…. (enabled!)
Ursula is next on my list! I’ve already bought the wool – it’s so beautiful!!! in fact i want to put the blanket to one side and start it as i think it would be a lovely summer cardi but that would be breaking my project rules!!!
It would be good if you could find a group of people that wanted to knit the sheep heid hat. It still uses all 9 shades so would be pretty expensive to buy the yarn (i think the blanket only uses about 3 balls more!), or you could knit 4 of them…..hehe!
Ooh what are you knitting Ursula in? Good idea about Sheep Heid – I have now purchased yarn for the hat and the blanket (oops!) as the kit covers both. But a group could share the cost of the yarn
xx
I love Fair Isle too and have designed a little using the technique. I let my son make a design on graph paper and translated it to a hat. (Joey’s Hat)
Tip for a beginner, try using just 2 colors, a light colored solid and another yarn with long color repeats to create “faux Isle”. You will only be using 2 different yarns but will end up with different colors.
I have started taking a Craftsy class (can’t find the time to finish it) and I think it is great. I teach knitting myself, but you can always learn something from someone else. The main problem is the temptation to sign up for too many classes. I am a sucker for their sales.
Hi Sarah – great beginners tip! Thank you – good idea. And Joey’s hat sounds brill.
Yes I know what you mean about those Craftsy sales. I have to say I find it so much easier to consume my courses through their iPad app. It means I can watch for half an hour or so in bed, before I fall asleep. Perfect
Thanks for commenting!
That blanket looks amazing! I LOVE fair isle but don’t quite have the motivation yet to take on anything bigger than a baby sweater. You just might enable me…
The kit I have does the hat and the blanket so really good… hee hee… enable, enable…!