By Show Me Step by StepPublished
Based on a video by Jessica McDonald.
Fair Isle knitting uses two colors in the same round to make a pattern. You knit with one color and carry the other across the back until you need it again. Jessica McDonald teaches it on the yoke of her Blizzard sweater, a design made for knitters who have never tried colorwork. The repeats are short, the increases sit in plain rounds, and the floats never run longer than three stitches. That makes it a kind first project.
The names get used for the same thing. Stranded colorwork is the method: two strands, one worked and one carried. Fair Isle is the traditional style from the Shetland islands, with small repeating motifs and only two colors in any round. Intarsia is different. It uses separate blocks of color with no strands carried behind.
Each square is one stitch and each row is one round. Read from the bottom up, and read each row from right to left, which is the direction you knit. The key tells you what each square means. On a yoke chart you may see gray squares or an X marked no stitch. Those columns fill in once an increase round adds the stitches. If keeping track is hard, put a stitch marker between every repeat for the first few rounds.
When you hold two yarns, one sits a little lower on the back of the work. That color shows slightly bolder on the front. Jessica holds the contrast in her left hand so the white motif pops against the brown. Which color is dominant matters less than keeping it the same. Switch hands halfway and the motif changes where you switched.
Most beginner colorwork trouble comes from floats that are too tight. The fabric puckers and loses its stretch. Spread the stitches on your right needle before every color change, and the float behind them gets the length it needs. Floats that are too loose show as baggy stitches, but blocking fixes far more than you might expect. Jessica's advice is plain: your first piece will not be perfect, so wet block it and do better on the next one.
Use a woolly, slightly grippy yarn. Wool strands cling together and hide small tension bumps. Slick superwash yarns, cotton and acrylic show every uneven stitch. Pick two colors with strong contrast. Photograph them in black and white. If they look like the same gray, the pattern will disappear.
No need to rip back. Clip a removable marker on the stitch, keep knitting, then cover it with one duplicate stitch in the right color when you weave in ends.
Yokes are knit in the round, so start with how to knit in the round if that is new. The increase round uses make one left, covered in how to increase in knitting. How to read a knitting pattern helps with the written parts. A colorwork band on a simple hat makes a good first project. Finish with how to block knitting.
9 steps · about 18 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
A colorwork chart is a grid. Each square is one stitch, and each row is one round. Start at the bottom row and read it from right to left, the same way your needles travel. Then move up a row. The key tells you which shade each square stands for. Jessica's Blizzard chart opens with a six stitch repeat that you knit all the way around.
Tip
Fold the chart so only the part you are knitting shows. There is less to look at.
Lay a pen, a ruler or a strip of paper across the chart right above the round you are working. That hides everything ahead and keeps your eye on one row. Check off each round as you finish it and slide the pen up. A magnetic board and strip does the same job, but a pen you already own works fine.
Tip
Your phone or a sticky note works too. Anything that blocks the rows above.
Hold the main color in your right hand and throw it, English style. Drape the contrast color over your left index finger and pick it, continental style. One color in each hand saves you from dropping and grabbing yarn on every stitch. Whichever hand you choose for each color, keep it the same for the whole project. That keeps the color dominance even.
Tip
If two hands feels awkward, a knitting thimble yarn guide holds both strands on one finger.
Leave a six inch tail of the contrast color for weaving in later. Hold it against the work with your right hand for the first stitch or two so it snugs into place. Then follow row one of the chart. On the Blizzard yoke it is brown, white, brown, white all the way round. Knit one stitch past the round marker first so the marker cannot slip off.
Tip
A stitch marker at every repeat helps you spot a mistake within a few stitches, not a whole round later.
Fold the work and look inside. The strands running behind the stitches are floats. Each one carries a color across stitches knit in the other color. They should lie flat against the fabric, not pulling it into puckers and not hanging in loops. Every so often, spread the stitches on your needle to give the floats enough length. Puckered fabric means your floats are too tight.
Tip
Your first colorwork piece will not have perfect tension. Wet blocking evens out most of it.
Some rounds on a yoke chart add stitches. On Blizzard they are worked in the main color only: knit three, make one left, all the way round. To make one left, lift the bar between stitches with the left needle from front to back, then knit into the back of it. Leave the contrast yarn hanging. There is no need to cut it for one or two rounds.
Tip
Gray or X squares on a chart mean no stitch yet. They fill in once the increase round adds those stitches.
When the chart switches back to two colors, pick up the contrast yarn where you left it and drape it over your left finger again. Move the main color back to your right hand. The stitch where the contrast waited will look loose. Give the strand a gentle tug to snug it, or leave it until you weave in ends. Then carry on following the chart.
Tip
Knit a wrong color stitch? Clip a removable marker on it and fix it later with one duplicate stitch.
Longer floats need more care. On a round of three white and three brown, knit the first stitch of the new color, then spread the stitches on the right needle out to their full width. That gives the float behind them enough length. Knit the rest of that color block and spread again before switching back. Bunched stitches make a tight float and a bumpy fabric.
Tip
Floats longer than five stitches snag easily. Most beginner patterns keep them short, so check before you start.
Every few rounds, stop and spread out the work you have done. Pull it gently sideways. Good stranded fabric stretches without any spot binding up, and lies flat when you let go. If it feels tight, loosen up on the next rounds. When the yoke is finished, soak it and lay it flat to dry. Blocking relaxes the stitches and evens out small tension slips.
Tip
Use a wool wash for the soak. The wool blooms and fills in small gaps between the colors.
Keep going
How to Knit a Pillow Cover
How to Knit Fair Isle Stranded Colorwork for Beginners
Knit Picks
Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Needle Set
Swap tips and cables for any project instead of buying single needles forever. The nickel tips are slick and fast, and it all lives in one case.
Lion Brand
Lion Brand 24/7 Cotton Yarn
Mercerized cotton with crisp stitch definition and a subtle sheen, machine washable. A workhorse for dishcloths, bags, and warm-weather garments.
Clover
Clover Locking Stitch Markers (20-pack)
Lock onto the needle so they never slide off, and mark repeats, increases, and the start of a round. Small tool, saves the most frogging.
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