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Busy Bee Basics Machine Knitting Designs |
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Book 26 £5.00 New Edition Standard Gauge Machines |
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Fair Isle Sweaters for Men Fair Isle designed for the knitting machine |
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The first sweater is knitted
in Forsell's Shamal in 5 colours that reminded us of the beautiful
autumn colours as we drove up to Edinburgh every October for the
knitting exhibition.
But, as with all our Fair Isle designs, the colour sequence has been carefully designed to make knitting easy, with or without a single bed colour changer. Sizes 36"-44". |
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| The second sweater is
knitted in Denys Brunton's
Magicolor combined with 4 ply De Lux; the space dyed yarn produces
a good multi-coloured Fair Isle effect on this pattern which also draws on
the Norwegian influence.
Perhaps we should call this sweater Northern Lights as the colours of the yarn appear over the sweater and have a luminance of their own, just like the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, which are occasionally seen in Scotland. The round necklines are also worth a mention; all our patterns give full instructions on making a professional neckband which lies beautifully flat when worn - just as a neckline should! Sizes 36"-44". |
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Forsell's Shamal
has been used again for the
third sweater which sports a well defined Fair Isle design based on traditional
Fair Isle patterns and a well proportioned shawl collar.
This selection of colours from Forsell's Shamal is very reminiscent of the natural wool colours and vegetable dyes. The coloured trim on the shawl collar frames it well whilst the cuffs and welt have been left plain to avoid a cluttered look. Sizes 36"-44". |
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| This
V neck sweater has another Fair
isle design knitted in 5 shades of Forsell Shamal.
These are the colours of the sea, the shore and the sunset in the quiet bays and inlets on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands. Full instructions for knitting the neat V neckband are also included in the pattern. Sizes 36"-44". |
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The 5th sweater in this collection
is knitted in Denys
Brunton's Magicolor and 4 ply Acrylic as before, but this time the
Fair Isle pattern is vertical in design and a very colourful yarn was chosen -
and has proved to be immensely popular with the men!
To me, this colour combination is the Mountain Ash, or Rowan tree, laden with berries in late summer. Sizes 36"-44". |
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| Make a beeline for this: when using Magicolor you might find that the colours don't match either side of the V neck. To correct this you can 'advance' the yarn on the cone or you can cut & sew the neckline. Busy Bee's neckline templates are so easy to use - and difficult to lose - that you can cut & sew the neckline with complete confidence. | ||||
| A companion collection of designs for ladies is also available. Containing sweaters and cardigans, Book 28 'Fair Isle Designs for Ladies' is available with black and white illustrations at the lower price of £3.50. A colour version will be available later. | ||||
Notes about Tradition Fair isle Designs Traditional Fair Isles are knitted in 100% wool, sometimes in their natural colours or coloured with vegetable dyes. But time moves on and we have used Forsell's Shamal 4 ply, which is 20% wool and 80% Acrylic, for three of these designs, and Denys Brunton's Magicolor and 4 ply De Lux for the other two designs. The secret to recreating a traditional Fair Isle look with modern machine knitting yarns is colour. If you are not using the same colours that we have used, arrange all your cones on a shelf at eye level and keep on moving them around until you get the look you want. With Shamal or any similar yarn, you will probably find that some colours are 'bright', they reflect light and give the impression of being mixed with white, other colours are more subdued, they seem to absorb light and give the impression of being mixed with black. For a pleasing result try not to mix the two, either use all 'whites' or all 'blacks' - try it and see! (Before anyone emails us with technical details about the composition of colour, this is only meant to be a helpful hint - we'll leave the technicalities for another day!) |
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| These stitch patterns are available on disk FI1 for either Brother disk drive or DesignaKnit | ||||
Book 26, Fair Isle Designs for Men, £5.00 |
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