I use two types of motifs when I design my knitting patterns – Fair Isle patterns which are traditionally OXO patterns – if anyone tells you any different or says that they are knitting Fair Isle, mostly they are knitting stranded colour work, which is also wonderful but not culturally Fair Isle.
And my other knitting designs which mostly have Shetland motifs – which I colour blend.
My Fair Isle designs have been particularly colourful. I designed the pattern as I knitted it and whilst I ran with the colours that I most love. Fair Isle motifs do not need lots of colour and always only 2 colours in each row. But, there is a particular way that I combine my colours. For example, for the Vest that I made for my sister, which is less colourful than I would normally choose because I asked her what colours she liked and she said, black, grey, navy and maybe dark red and mustard as well. I started knitting the vest with the colours she liked best, black, dark grey and light greys for the bigger OXO motifs then used the navy or red or mustard for the smaller bands of motifs in between. But, then, I got bored so stared to add the reds and navy and mustard into the larger OXO bands – kinda forgetting any sort of order. My favourite section of the vest is the part from the dividing vest at the armpits for front and back. I used her colour choices but where I wanted, and if you look carefully, you can see that I contrasted the colours in each OXO band between motif and background.
Here are some examples of my Fair Isle charts/ patterns – The Long Fair Isle Hat/Scarf and the Fair Isle chart. If you would like to learn how to build your own Fair Isle vest or jumper from my Fair Isle chart, then I am running a workshop on how to do this on 15th March.
Here are the links to the Fair Isle long/hat scarf pattern which gives you a full list of all the colours that I used as well as lots of clear easy to follow Fair Isle charts.
Here is the link to the Fair Isle Chart which gives you all of the colours for the jumper in the bottom image and also gives you full charts so that you can make your own jumper or vest. It is not a pattern.
The patterns that I make using Shetland motifs, for example the Kaleidoscope jumper, I blend the colours for the back ground and the motif, I love colour blending. I use between 3-5 colours in the background and 3 or 4 colours in the motif, which gives the knitted article more of a rich colourful knit. I go for a glow.
here is a link to my latest design – but actually, the Dear Susan, Easy Aran jumper pattern which is a very quick and easy knit, also has colour blending on the yoke, cuffs and above the rib.
All of my patterns give clear instructions which row to change your colours but if you would like to do a Colour Blending Class, I have one running on 14th March.
My favourite way to use colours in my patterns is to blend them. 🙂 let me know in a comment how you like to use your colours. and if you would like to subscribe to my posts – just fill in the subscribe box below and you’ll receive any new posts.
I cannot wait to pick up my knitting again 🙂
tracey doxey 