Book Review – Fearless Fair Isle Knitting

Congratulations to Nancy!

I saw a few people on last week’s giveaway, when I asked for knitting resolutions or skills they wanted to learn in the new year, who said Fair Isle or colorwork knitting, so this seemed like an appropriate followup.

Fearless Fair Isle Knitting by Kathleen Taylor aims to take the scary bits out of colorwork by explaining the basics and providing little collections of patterns that use the same designs in different ways.

The stripes, checks and curlicues section, for instance, includes a hoodie vest (it’s on the cover), a pair of socks and a felted bag, all of which use the same designs.

There are garments for men, women and children as well as plenty of hat, mitts, bags, socks and gloves. I love the Nordic Snowflake dress and the Prairie Earth and Sky women’s cardigan to name just a couple (in all there are 30 patterns, which you can check out most of on Ravelry).

Some of these patterns are sure to be intimidating to new stranded colorwork users, but there are enough small projects, or those that use colorwork on only a portion of the project, that I think a newer colorwork knitter could find some fun stuff to try, and of course those with more experience would find some things they’d like to tackle, too (if you’re a Fair Isle expert, check out the stunning Dragon Ride Shawl at the back of the book).

If you’d like a chance to win this one, leave a comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, Jan. 1. Can you believe that? Since I asked for craft-related resolutions last week, I’d love to know if you have any other resolutions or goals for the new year. Or if you do One Little Word, I’d love to hear your word. (I think mine is energetic.)

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

Looking for more knitting patterns for knitted Cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

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Linen stitch is one of my favorite knitting stitch patterns that, every time I use it in a project, I think about how I don’t use it often enough.

It’s an easy stitch to make, with slip stitches done with the yarn held to the front of the work on the right/front side and to the back on the wrong/back side, which makes the strand of yarn a visible part of the pattern.

It also makes a fabric that is thick and looks kind of like a woven fabric.

I recently used linen stitch to make a double-thick pot holder, which I worked in a kind of interesting way. I didn’t want to have to do any sewing on the project, so I started it from a crochet cast on and picked up stitches from the side of the cast on to make the hot pad all in one piece in the round with the edge sealed.

This requires working on two circular needles, which is another technique I don’t use that often and am always reminded how much I like it when I do.

The combination of double thickness and the stitch pattern makes for a hot pad that’s already pretty thick, but I also added a bit of old towel to the inside before I closed up the end to make it super thick and extra protective for your surfaces.

I found the engineering challenge of this construction method to be a lot of fun, but you could also just knit it as a tube (casting on twice as many stitches as I did) and sew up the ends by hand when the knitting is done. Either way you’ve got a useful and pretty addition to your kitchen, whether you work it in a solid color, stripes or as a stash busting project will all your cotton odd balls.

You can grab the pattern over at Our Daily Craft, or check it out on Ravelry.

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