Knit Camp: Introduction to Fair Isle

I have been looking forward to knit camp for ages and can't believe that it's finally here and I have already had one class (mind you I did only sign up for two). Yesterday I had a class with Liz Lovick who was teaching an introduction to Fair Isle. I had so much fun in that class and I learned loads. We got given the yarn we needed and the pattern and went from there. Whilst we knitted away we got a wee talk on the history of Fair Isle and the Island. I love this sort of thing and found it very interesting. Although I now want to visit all of the Scottish Islands. We got to see lots of lovely photo's of examples from over the years and told ways of telling which islands the pieces came from.

You can see my work space and my neighbours work space here (a lovely American lady).

Also got to see lots of different ways of knitting amongst the class itself. This lady and her friends are from Portugal and they wrap the yarn round their necks. We also had more ladies from America, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and various parts of England and Scotland.

An example of another lady's work. Liz deliberately gave out a mix of colours and light and dark yarn as our first one so that we could see the differences in colour combinations. It really was amazing the change just by alternating back ground colours.

A friend was brought in to show us how a lot of people on fair isle knit. They used three needles on the round. The one they are knitting onto is held against a belt. This prevents too much movement in the wrist which can cause health problems later on. You can also see the vest she is wearing which was designed by herself. Most knitters on the islands design their own.

You can't really see it here but the needle she is knitting onto is leaning against the leather belt. The way she is holding the yarn is just one of many ways of doing it.

Last but not least this is what I managed to get done. I am actually amazed that I did that. I had this image of having complicated ways of twisting the yarn at the back but it wasn't like that at all. We even got a bit of advice on colour choices and designing our own. I am looking forward to actually spending some time practising and experimenting.