Design - Fair Isle w Alice Starmore

 

Creating Fair Isle Patterns - Alice Starmore

Calculating Stitches and Rows

To calculate the stitches required for width, multiply the width measurement by the stitch gauge.

To calculate the rounds required for length, multiply the length measurement by the row gauge.

For example, a scarf which is to be 18 x 60” and where the gauge is 8 stitches and 8 1/32 rounds to 1”. The stitches required for width are 18 x 8 = 144. The rounds required for length are 60 x 8 ½ = 510.

Fitting Patterns into Widths

For circular designs, pattern repeats should divide an exact number of times into the total number of stitches in the round. Divide the total number of stitches by the number of stitches in the repeat, to calculate how many times a pattern repeat divides into a total number of stitches.

For example

Total stitches   = 144

Stitch repeat   = 12

Therefore,       144 ÷ 12 = 12 pattern repeats per round

The total no. stitches in this scarf is convenient since it can be used with repeats of 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 18 , 24 and 36 stitches. It makes sense to choose a pattern with one of these repeats.

However, not all total no. stitches offer this range of repeats.

For example

Stitch gauge    = 8 sts to 1”

Width              = 40 ½ “

Total stitches   = 8 x 40 ½ = 324

Stitch repeat   = 20

Therefore,       = 324 ÷ 20 = 16 pattern repeats per round with 4 sts left over

To solve this problem there are three options: (1) choose a different pattern that fits exactly into 324 stitches. Ie a pattern with repeats of 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 18 or 36 stitches, or (2) adjust the pattern repeat to fit by moving the pattern elements closer or farther apart, such as 18 sts or 36 sts or (3) adjust the total stitch count to fit the pattern repeat. Eg 324 – 4 = 320 which fits the pattern 16 times with no stitches left over. This would reduce the width by ½ “. This should only be done when the number of stitches removed is small. The alternative would be to add 16 stitches to the total number of stitches so that 17 (340 ÷ 20 = 17) repeats could fit fully. This would add 2” to the width of the garment which may or may not be acceptable.

Sometimes a combination of (2) and (3) is best.

For example

Total stitches   = 196   (max increase or decrease set at 2 sts)

Stitch repeat   = 20     (aim to adjust as little as possible)

Therefore,       =196 ÷ 20 = 9 repeats with 16 sts left over

The solution here is to increase the total number of stitches by 2 to 198 and decrease the stitch repeat by 2 to 18 so that 11 full repeats will fit (198 ÷ 18 = 11).