Fair Isle colour-work

With the right yarn and a choice of colours you can get really beautiful results from what is quite a straightforward technique.

only two colours at a time! photographic evidence

The biggest revelation is that you create traditional Fair Isle patterns by knitting with only two colours in each row, which means that you're only ever managing two threads at a time. So no tangles!

Below you can see what the back side of the knitting looks like. A lovely springy yarn like ours is just made for this kind of work. The "give" in the woolly strand makes it easier to knit with just the right amount of looseness and "carry" your second thread across the back of the fabric as you knit.