Stranded

    Indulge me, please, in just one more post about knitting and then on to other things, but yesterday I had a minor triumph in that I tried and managed stranding for the first time. Note I said 'managed' and not 'mastered' as I have a very long way to go, but just visible in the corner of that picture is a practice swatch made using two colours of scrap yarn but which incorporates corrugated ribbing and the first few rows of a real Fair Isle pattern. I am awfully pleased!
    Helping me here is Ann Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting which looks to be a pretty definitive exposition of the subject. So far, I've been diverted by the pictures of the marvellous designs and colour combinations (and there is a lot on colour theory in the book), but there is so much on technique and - all-important for me - the history of the art, that I'm very glad I've bought it. Now I feel I can begin to make use of the small collection of Shetland yarn (just a skein or ... forty-five!) I found on ebay a while ago.


   Here's Stanley Cursiter's "The Fair Isle Jumper" which looks as though it dates from the 1920s which was when Fair Isle was at the height of fashion and when the speed of the knitters and their rate of production of these complicated garments were quite phenomenal.
    With no grand plans, and working at a snail's pace, I look forward just to experimenting with colour and design once I've got the hang of the technique.
   

Comments

[Melissa!]

I haven't been by in a long while - before I start reading through your blog I have to ask, have you seen the movie, "The Jane Austen Book Club"?

[Peter the Flautist]

Let me know when you want me to arrange the next fashion shoot.

Morgana's familiar

[rosie]

Looking forward to seeing your fair-isle skills grow. I love the hat in the painting.

[Cheryl]

As much as I love the vintage pic, I'm wondering where the photo of your own fair isle happens to be? Mastery or no, we all celebrate progress!

[dovegreyreader]

Karen, I'm loving your knitting posts! I know that knit-addiction feeling when it descends and as for Fair Isle, well j'adore. I did loads of research years ago when I was making children's jumpers on an ancient old Knitmaster Empisal machine and accumulated some wonderful books which I then...er...sold on ebay because I thought the fad had passed. Silly me! Does your book have any info about the Robe of Glory? Traditionally a jumper made for boys coming of age and contains all the trad designs like Tree of Life etc.

[Charity]

I love the knitting talk of late! :0) I'm still quite intimidated by the idea of stranded knitting - I hope to try it one day, but not too soon, I think!

[Louise]

Ha! I ordered three fair isle books from the library only today.

'The Fair Isle Jumper' appears as the cover to Catherine Carswell's 'The Camomile' in the Virago Modern Classics edition, where she is facing the other direction. Just a bit of trivia I thought I'd share.

[Peter the flautist]

Can you perhaps enlighten those of us with two left-paws exactly what the "stranding" technique is please? A topological map or a finite-state machine diagram might assist us for example. Possibly just a wee picture is enough!

[probablyjane]

I am having a bit of a stranded knitting binge at the moment. Even by confining myself to mittens and gloves I am fascinated by the differences and conections between, for example, the Fairisles of Scotland, the Selbuvotter of Norway and the Komi Mitts of Russia in terms of patterning and construction.

There's nothing like a piece of stranded knitting to make you feel like a Very Accomplished Knitter!

I too look forward to the photographic evidence of your endeavours.

PS I have a Shetland wool collection too...

[Becky]

A blog-but-not-post-related question: I am reading the newest Isabel Dalhousie novel (er. . on cd) in the US and noticed it's named The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday here, while the UK edition is called The Comfort of Saturdays. Any idea why that 's' migrated or why the adjective vanished? Are there undertones of scurrilousness that we Yanks don't pick up? Is there a site that discusses such issues? Am curious.
And would also love a pic of your Fair Isle; I'm working on two bespoke Christmas stockings and stranded knitting is big at my house right now!

[adele geras]

Good luck with the Fairisle, Cornflower! It's such fun and really not as hard as it seems at first. Traditional Fairisle only uses two colours or so per line of knitting,doesn't it? So you don't get the twenty little bobbiny things hanging off the back of the knitting as you do with a Kaffe Fassett design say. You'll love it. Those little bobbiny things which keep the wool neat are brilliant.
And today it was cold enough to wear the lovely KidMohair scarf tucked into the neck of my coat!