Fair isle and Intarsia

Fair-isle knitting

·         Fair-isle is a technique used for working with more than one colour in a row, when all the yarns are used across the row.

·         When working in fair-isle a yarn in the non-knitting colour is threaded behind the knitting colour creating long loops which are called 'floats'.

·         Charts for fair-isle and intarsia are usually read from right to left on odd rows, and left to right on even rows. This is because if the structure is sticking stitch, which it commonly is, odd rows are knit rows and even rows are purl rows.

·         Charts may be drawn in colour, but symbols are often used instead.

·         The simplest method of working fair-isle is to strand the yarns across the back of the knitting; this is called the ‘stranding’ method (see Figure 1).

·         If you have a float that carries over more than 4 stitches, the stranding method can look ugly and the floats catch on fingers and rings. In this case you are better to use the ‘weaving’ or ‘twisting’ methods as described below.

The back of fair-isle knitting with stranded floats

The back of fair-isle knitting with woven floats

Helpful tip

I really recommend that you practise holding the second colour in your left hand as this makes fair-isle – and weaving in particular, much faster and easier to work.

Weaving or twisting the floats

Method:

To weave on a knit row, lay the non-working yarn between the needles as if to knit BEFORE you lay in the working yarn. Bring the non-working yarn back to its original position, and when you slip the stitch off the left-hand needle, make sure that the non-working yarn does not become incorporated into the main colour stitch.

Weaving in on a knit row

Weaving in on apurl row (this image is misleading - apologies, it shows working a purl on a knit row, but the postion of the yarns is still correct)

To weave on a purl row. You do the same thing, but because your yarn is at the front of the knitting, bring the non-working yarn from the front.

The main thing is to PRACTISE and have a bit of fun at the same time.

Helpful tip

When weaving, you are winding the yarns over and under each other, so it is REALLY important to keep them in the correct high over or under position between making stitches. If you fail to do this your weaving won’t work correctly.

Twisting

This is a simpler method than weaving, but is not as neat.

 Method:

·         Knit with the first colour yarn (colour A). Join in the second colour (colour B).

·         After 2 or 3 stitches, pick up yarn A and twist it around yarn B at the back and continue knitting with yarn B.

·         Keep twisting when you want to change colours, your yarn will be carried behind the work and will avoid forming long floats.

·         Twist every 3 stitches and your work will lay flat and will still allow the fabric to stretch. If you twist on every stitch your work will bunch up and look ugly.

 

Knitting-in-the-round

·         This is my favourite method of knitting fair-isle because it only requires you to knit, not to make purl stitches.

·         Use a circular needle or 4 or 5 double pointed needles.

Helpful tip

If you work with the stranding yarn on the outside of your ‘round’, it is easier to keep the strands loose and prevent your knitting pulling tight.

Intarsia knitting

Intarsia is a technique used for working with more than one colour in a row, when a separately length of yarn is used to work each area of colour. Yarns are twisted around each other at each colour change.

·         When working intarsia, on a right sloping colour change, twist on knit rows only,

·         On a left sloping colour change, twist on purl rows only.

·         On a vertical colour change, twist on each row.

The reverse of intarsia knitting showing the ‘wrap’.

Graph Papers

·         Drawing your pattern on a graph is absolutely the best way to prepare for fair-isle knitting.

·         To print graph paper that exactly matches your stitch to row tension, go to:

http://www.tata-tatao.to/knit/matrix/e-index.html, type the figures in and print off your personalised grid.