Color My Cowl is a good introduction to fair isle knitting, or a bit of fun if you’re experienced with fair isle. In the video, I demonstrate the basic techniques used for this and all stranded knitting projects. Free pattern, coloring page, and three-part video tutorial.
Get your free pattern HERE. This link will give you the option of downloading the coloring page and/or the pattern.
Size: 28” long (folded double, after seaming) 56” long before seaming, 7” wide
Needles: Size 7 US (4.5mm) 16” circular needles (please see note on needles below), another 16″ circular or double-pointed needles in the same size (for Kitchener stitch)
Yarn: 2 or more colors of worsted weight wool or wool blend, superwash is fine
Additional Materials: Size G or H crochet hook, scrap yarn, tapestry needle
Gauge: 6.5 stitches per inch (exact gauge is not very important in this pattern)
Note on Needles: I demonstrate this cowl using 16” circular needles, which are the easiest to use for keeping even tension with the “floats” in fair isle. You can, however, use a longer cord and the magic loop method, or double-pointed needles. Just pay special attention to the tension of the floats when they’re carried between the magic loop halves or double-pointed needle gaps.
You can find more information about Knitter’s Pride needles, as well as retailers using these links:
Bryson Distributing
Accessories Unlimited
Knitter’s Pride Shop finder
The Knitter’s Pride Platina needles I’m using can be found here.
The yarn I used in my cowl in the photo above – Berroco Vintage Worsted (100 gram hanks) in the following colors:
2 hanks Butter Cream
1 hank Caribbean Sea
1 hank Misty
1 hank Sunny
1 hank Macaron
Some other yarns I recommend, because they are smooth, plied yarns; wool or wool blend; and offer a wide palette of colors:
Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted
Knit Picks Swish Worsted
Cascade 220 Worsted
Information on things you’ll see in the video:
The artist who drew the coloring page is Paula Pertile, Etsy shop DrawingsofKnitting.
The nail polish I’m wearing is by Julep, color “Janie”.
A slideshow of all of the #colormycowl posted on Instagram – this feed is updated every ten minutes.
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This is my first attempt at Fair Isle, and I love it! It makes me look like a knitting GENIUS to my non- knitting friends! Haha.
Great tutorial.
HOW do I keep 4 colours from getting all tangled together?
Carolyn – you don’t have to keep all of the colors attached at once. Only two colors are used at a time for any round. But untwisting the working yarns every now and then is just a part of working fair isle.
S t a c i