Origins of Fair Isle patterns....
The origin of our knitting patterns is not now known. Their similarity to Moorish patterns has led to the, rather romantic, notion of a link to the Spanish Armada ship, El Gran Grifon, which was shipwrecked here in 1588 or could the skill have been developed from the Vikings who settled here in the more distant past? It seems most likely that at some date a piece of patterned knitting was bartered into the isle from a passing ship in return for fresh food and water. Much of this trade was with ships from the Baltic nations and this is from where the knitting could well have originated. The isle women, who were probably already skilful producers of plain knitting, eventually developed the patterns into a unique form of knitting. By the mid 19th century all-over patterned garments were being traded off the isle and the evolution of the intricate pattening has continued ever since. Crosses and lozenge shaped hexagons containing symbols, often of a religious nature, formed the basic OXO pattern. A range of other, smaller, patterns - such as anchors, ram's horns, hearts, ferns and flowers - were also used, all of which reflected the life and environment of the isle.
Ram's Horns pattern.
Artwork copyright John C Best. Photo copyright Elizabeth Riddiford.
.....and traditional Fair Isle colours
Traditionally, brightly coloured garments were knitted using hand-spun yarns coloured in a variety of ways. Indigo would have been bartered onto the isle for the dyeing of blue yarn. Madder root was also bartered for and, when mixed with an orchrelechia lichen found on the isle known as Korkalett, produced the reds (known as madder) so distinctive of old Fair Isle knitwear. Yellow was dyed from amphibious bistort, a plant native to Fair Isle and were known as Blocks. A small amount of hand-spinning and natural-dyeing continues on the island to this day.
Natural (undyed) colours - The isle women have traditionally also made use of the wide range of natural wool colour which occurs amongst the fine-fleeced Shetland sheep, ranging from Shetland black, shaela (dark grey), sholmit (pale grey), moorit (brown), mooskit (dark fawn), eesit (pale fawn) to unbleached white.
Nowadays, most islanders continue to sheer their Fair Isle sheep with hand-sheers - the majority of fleeces being sent to the spinning mill at Sandness on Shetland mainland, where they are now commercially spun and dyed. The full range of natural (undyed) and traditionally coloured commercial yarns are then used by the current knitters on Fair Isle along with a selection of contemporary colours.
In genuine, traditional Fair Isle knitting made on Fair Isle, two colours are used in each row with an average of four colours used throughout the whole garment. Blocks of patterns are not repeated.
