The Newbie’s Guide to Fair Isle Knitting

If you’re familiar with my shop, you probably know that I’m all about colorwork. I spent years honing the skill so I could make hats featuring anything from planets to swiss cheese. But I think the fair isle knitting style can look a little daunting to newer knitters — or those of us who’ve just never given the technique a shot.

The truth is, it’s actually pretty easy once you learn the ropes! Here are some pro tips for learning the basics and making what can be a messy process as simple as possible.

What is Fair Isle Knitting, Exactly?

“Colorwork” is a bit of a broad category. While the distinctions between techniques aren’t hard-set, fair isle knitting is at its core a way to knit with two color strands at a time. This is very common for projects in the round, but you can make your flat projects fair isle too.

The traditional fair isle look is an intricate pattern created from a few colors, with only two color strands used per row. Some of my patterns break from this — it can be a headache, but I’ll talk about knitting with three different colors at once in this guide too.

Since I almost exclusively knit hats these days, fair isle is my life. You can also check out the intarsia (another go-to for my patterns) and jacquard techniques for some different approaches to knitting with colorwork!

I’ve made a handy infographic, but you can also jump right to the written instructions:

• • Reading a Chart
  • Switching Strands
  • Float On
  • Keeping Things Organized
  • Extra Complications

Reading a Chart

Fair isle knitting charts show you when to switch between colors row by row, so you can eventually make one beautiful design. Patterns will indicate different colors with “mc” (main color) and “cc” (contrast color), although you can read the notes for more clarification if more than two colors are used.

When I make charts for myself, I usually just color them in the colors I’m planning on using for a given project anyway. I use the awesome tool Stitch Fiddle, which makes designing patterns a breeze. Here’s an example of a custom fair isle chart I made for a hat:

We read fair isle charts from bottom-to-top and right-to-left. Essentially, you have to go against everything you thought you knew about reading. The bottom right box is the first column of your first row.

• If you’re knitting in the round, your second row will also be right-to-left. Every time you finish a row, your eyes should move back to the right to start the next one.
• If you’re knitting flat, you’ll be doing a reverse side. You’ll knit the same row again on the reverse, but left-to-right. When you move on to the second row, you start the right-to-left and reverse process again.

Knitting in the round means you’ll probably repeat the chart a few times for each row. For instance, this example shows 22 stitches, but the hat I’ll knit has 88 stitches to a row. That means I’ll repeat each row of the chart 4 times until I’m back to my starting point.

Switching Strands

The first time you need to use the second color, simply slide your needle through the stitch like you’re preparing to knit it. Then, take your second strand and loop it over the back needle. Proceed to knit, and boom! You’ve just made a stitch with another color.

Now, the first color is being carried behind the second. When you need to switch back to it, simply pick up the strand and knit with it instead.

Fair isle knitting tends to be pretty easy because you switch colors frequently. You pick up and drop the different strands as you need them. If you’re using one color for more than 4 stitches, however, you’ll have to float the other strand so it doesn’t get left behind.

Float On

Okay, let’s look at my chart again. See the hearts? You’ll notice that at some points, the heart requires 5 stitches of one color. That means you’ll want to float the second color so that it doesn’t mess up your project. I would never recommend using more than 4 stitches in a color without floating, or else the strands will be too long and cause the knitting to bunch up.

To make a float, simply carry the unused strand along by wrapping it over the strand you’re working with when you go to make a stitch. For a video demonstration, I’d check out this great tutorial.

Occasionally, I’ll be working on a pattern that calls for long stretches of one color, in which case I have to float the second strand every 4 stitches for a while. Your working yarn is going to get all twisted together when this happens because you keep wrapping one strand over the other. Luckily, I have a tip for that scenario too!

Keeping Things Organized

I am very conscious about keeping my two skeins separate when I’m doing colorwork. I usually keep one to my left and one to my right, staying aware of which strand is on which side. That way, I can quickly pull from whichever skein I need without having to untangle bunched-up strands.

Many knitters use bowls to keep their skeins in place while they knit. I desperately need one or two of these — mine will roll all over the place if I don’t take the time to secure them!

You should also watch whether a strand should be pulled from under or above the other. This will make more sense in practice, but a good way to untangle floats as you go is to pull from the right direction so the yarn naturally untwists. If things are crazy, you can always pause and manually unwind your working yarn.

Extra Complications

Take a look at the galaxy hat design I made. Do you see how Saturn’s rings are knit in a third color? I do everything in my power to avoid this situation because it’s such a headache, but sometimes a pattern may call for you to knit fair isle with 3 colors at once.

If this is required for more than two or three rows, it is not worth the hassle. Trust me. It’s the most tedious thing.

In this case, you have to be extra careful about floats. Make sure that each color is being floated for every 4 stitches of unuse, or you’ll end up with a mess. Unfortunately, this means that you’ll have more twists in your working yarn strands than you could ever untangle as you go. When you knit with 3 colors, expect to stop semi-frequently to unwind your skeins.

The Magical Applications of Fair Isle Knitting

Fair isle knitting is a gorgeous technique, and now you have the advice you need to master it yourself. As you get more comfortable, you’ll probably find yourself seeking out new charts or even making them yourself — that’s what happened to me!

What are your favorite fair isle patterns? Let me know below!