How to Read a Fair Isle Knitting Chart
- 1). Cast about 90 stitches onto your circular needle. Join the knitting into a circle, as most Fair Isle knitting is done in the round, and the charts are made to be read for circular knitting. Put a marker where you joined the knitting. Knit in knit two, purl two ribbing for an inch, and then knit nine, make one (by making a backward loop on the right needle) all the way around. Now you have 100 stitches. Count the number of stitches (squares) in one repeat of your charted color pattern, beginning from the right and counting to the left. If that number of stitches doesn't divide evenly into 100, increase by a few more stitches on the next row to make the pattern fit evenly.
- 2). Look at the right side of the chart. You will see numbers starting at 1 at the bottom, and increasing as they go up the right side of the chart. These are the row numbers. You will knit every row without turning to purl the work. The first square to the left of the number 1 will have a symbol or a color in it. If it is a symbol, there will be a key somewhere on the page near the chart specifying what color the symbol represents. Look at the key and determine what color to knit for this first stitch. Knit the stitch in this color.
- 3). Look at the next square immediately to the left of the first square. Note the symbol or color in this square. It could be the same as the first square, in which case knit the second stitch in this color again. If it is a different color, pick up this second color, which you are carrying on the wrong side of the work along with the other color. Knit this color. Each row will have only two colors, and some rows will have only one color all the way across.
- 4). Continue knitting the first row by alternating between the two colors as the chart directs. You will notice that there is a rhythm or pattern to this: for example, three stitches of color A, followed by three stitches of color B repeat all the way across. After a while you don't have to refer to the chart anymore for that row.
- 5). Knit to the end of the first row, where you joined the knitting and placed the marker. Now look at row two of the Fair Isle chart. The chart will probably call for the same two colors you were just using, only in a different order. Follow the chart for row two, and pretty soon you will see a pattern emerging that looks like the pattern formed on the chart. By row three, the "picture" made by the different color stitches should be readable, almost as clear as the chart.
- 6). Continue to knit the rows as laid out in the chart, working from the bottom of the chart toward the top. Some rows will be knit in only one color, especially between different pattern motifs. Some pattern motifs will be only three rows tall (the peerie patterns) and others will be 12 to 20 stitches tall (the border patterns). In a traditional Fair Isle sweater, the peerie patterns alternate with the border patterns.
- 7). Continue to knit this swatch for about 4 inches. Now you have practiced reading a Fair Isle knitting chart, and you have a gauge swatch for any future Fair Isle knitting projects you might undertake.
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