I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that one of my new year’s resolutions for the past TWO years has been to knit a Fair Isle slipover, possibly with matching socks or legwarmers (& a jumper for Teddy?) and I haven’t even come close to designing one. The trouble is that there are so many wonderful possibilities! Where to begin?
More Fair Isle inspiration on Pinterest.
Do I want colours of similar hues, or do I want to mix them up? What about keeping the background colour constant throughout? I do know that I’d like to combine modern patterns with the traditional ones, and I’d quite like each design to have some sort of symbolic meaning, even if I’m the only one who knows about it.
With so much to keep in mind, I thought it would be better to start small, and use this knitting paper I designed to doodle Fair Isle patterns I liked, when I came across them. Mary Mucklestone’s amazing 200 Fair Isle Motifs (more on that later) gave me a head start on patterns, and when I have time I’ll be working through her Fair Isle course on Craftsy. Of course I could do the job in iWork, but it wouldn’t be half as much fun, would it? You all know how much I enjoy colouring in! :)
Once I have the patterns I like, I can cut them out in strips and play with the positioning until I’m happy with the way they look together. I may need to find some more coloured pencils though… ;)
The PDF includes both large and small versions of the stitch paper, in both orientations. I hope you find it useful! :)