Sheila McGregor - Traditional Fair Isle Knitting

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Hand knitting, once a major British industry, has regained much of its former respectability since the days, not long ago, when it was described as a suitable occupation only for the aged and feeble-minded.

In one part of Britain, the Shetland Islands, a group of islands off the north-east tip of Scotland beyond the Orkneys, hand knitting has persisted as a cottage industry over almost 500 years. Various factors now threaten this old heritage, particularly North Sea oil and the prosperity brought by the influx of oil-related jobs. In many communities (though not in all) the most expert knitters are increasingly the elderly ones, and there is some danger that old skills and old patterns may be lost. Now seems therefore an appropriate point to make a comprehensive record of the craft of stranded knitting in Shetland.

To most people this is more familiar as Fair Isle knitting, and indeed it was in Fair Isle, an outlying island of the Shetland group, that this brightly coloured and patterned stranded knitting was first developed. It uses two colours in each row and the wool not in use is stranded along the back in short loops. This forms a double fabric which is extremely warm and resistant to all but the worst weather.

It is possible, but not very relevant, to distinguish between the Fair Isle knitting of Fair Isle and the Fair Isle knitting of the rest of Shetland. The purely Fair Isle period lasted from about 1850 to 1910 or so; thereafter most other parts of Shetland began to produce very similar stranded knitting, using the old patterns of Fair Isle, possibly some small local ones from other islands, and adding a great many from other sources. Today most knitting in Shetland is of Fair Isle typestranded knitting using the traditional patterns which have been collected here. Fair Isle itself, sadly, is no longer a very active centre, but the fishing islands of Whalsay, Burra and the Out Skerries, together with Lerwick on the largest island, Mainland, have thriving and innovative communities of knitters.

Both techniques and patterns have been recorded here. The unusual knitting method used in Shetland is mentioned but not stressed. It is quite possible to knit these patterns with any technique, so long as the circular method is followed. (This is described in Chapter 4: Knitting Techniques.)

The Pattern Notebook in Part Three contains the many patterns familiar to Shetland knitters, arranged according to size. My apologies are extended for any favourites inadvertently omitted. These patterns are all regarded by the Shetlanders as traditional.

The main source has been present-day knitters and knitwear but old patterns from museum pieces have been recorded as well. Besides their great interest to hand knitters, these patterns will be found useful by other craft workers and are adaptable to many types of embroidery as well as to machine knitting.

The origins of this amazing collection of patterns have aroused much speculation and some controversy. The writer has spent considerable time over the past few years investigating the popular theories and believes that while her account is not complete it is based on fact rather than romantic fiction. The remarkable achievements of the hand knitters of nineteenth-century Fair Isle, who produced brilliant and exciting knitting in surroundings of extreme povery and hardship, deserve more credit than is generally given.