Fair Isle Knitting Pattern

A stranded, multicolor knitting technique named for Fair Isle, one of Shetland's northern islands, in which no more than two colors are carried per row from a limited palette of around five, with the unused color stranded loosely behind the work. True Fair Isle patterning is distinguished from the broader technique of stranded colorwork by its characteristic repeating bands of small geometric motifs drawn from Shetland's own pattern tradition. The style reached wide public attention in 1921 when the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, wore a Fair Isle jumper publicly.