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).

 

 

Pattern - Bernacchi Cowl Fair Isle Class w Sally

 I took the Fair Isle Course with Sally at the Moonah Wool Shop in 2021 and it opened up a whole new world to me. 

Sally chose the Bernacchi cowl (Island Imprints) as a sample project to learn the skills of colourwork,  corrugated ribbing, a steek, and buttonhole bands -all skills that are transferrable to many other projects.

The cowl consists of 160 stitches (16 sts x 10 repeat) + 8 stitches for the steek. The chart does not show the steek stitches. Therefore, the BOR marker is 4 stitches before the beginning of the chart and 4 stitches after. The first 4 stitches of the steek are: pattern, background, pattern, background and the last 4 stitches of the steek are: background, pattern, background, pattern. ie they are the mirror image of each other.

The yarn was all Jamiesons of Shetland Spindrift 4 ply, a very sticky yarn with great loft. It takes 1 ball for the main colour and ½ ball each of two other colours. It was knitted using 3.25 circular needles on a 40cm cable and a pair of 3.25mm straight needles.

The gauge was 30sts x 32 rows to 10cm using the 3.25mm straight needles.

Carrying Floats

To carry the pattern floats underneath, knit with the yarn in the left hand.

To carry the background floats above, knit with the yarn in the right hand.

Corrugated Ribbing

Corrugated ribbing =k2, p2 in two colours

Cast on is usually in the colour of the purl stitch which is usually the main background colour. However, you can cast on in the pattern colour (frames the knitting) but this creates an obvious colour change in the purl bumps that you may not want. To avoid this, in the set-up round before starting on the chart, k2 in pattern colour and ......

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	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
	Rows 1 to 4 and 56 to 59
	Corrugated Ribbing