Exclusively Fair Isle | Handknitter's Diary

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A Fair Isle Handknitter's Diary

The knitter and her knitting…

A genuine all-over patterned Fair Isle jumper is a true work of art, taking an average of over 100 hours to hand-knit plus a certain amount of preparation time to design, including the intricate use and placement of the traditional patterns and colours. Elizabeth Riddiford of ‘Exclusively Fair Isle’ and former long-term member of Fair Isle Crafts Ltd likes to work with the beautiful natural undyed colours of wool as they come from the locally grown Fair Isle and Shetland sheep – Shetland black, moorit (brown), fawns (eesit, mooskit, moggit), greys (shaela, sholmit) and natural white, as well as the bold richness of the well-known traditional Fair Isle colours of madder (red), indigo blue, yellow, moorit and natural white. Elizabeth also chooses to work with the traditional Fair Isle OXO patterns, as well as a variety of other traditional Fair Isle patterns which inspire and remind her of the everyday natural world of Fair Isle itself. Garments that also involve the use of handspun yarn take much longer to make - the handspinning process alone taking many hours to complete.

“I have been a Fair Isle hand-knitter and hand-spinner since moving to Fair Isle over 30 years ago, having learnt the intricate patterns and techniques of real Fair Isle knitting from experienced local Fair Islanders. These skilled and talented ladies included Annie Thomson, Edith and Aggie Stout, all born on Fair Isle in the early 1900s and who, along with their sisters and cousins, had been taught to hand-knit by their mothers and grandmothers at the tender age of 3 or 4 years old in order to help supplement their families’ income. The tradition of Fair Isle hand-knitting is still practised and passed on by mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers to their daughters on Fair Isle today, although nowadays this is mostly for the pleasure of knitting for family members and friends.

Whilst enjoying the pleasure and challenges of learning Fair Isle hand-knitting during my early years on Fair Isle, I also fell in love with hand-spinning the beautifully soft pure Fair Isle fleeces which are grown on the island and have long been the proud owner of Spinning Wheel number 45 – a work of art in its own right, hand-crafted by Annie’s husband Stewart Thomson. For several years in the 1980s and 1990s, I was kept busy giving hand-spinning and natural dyeing tuition to interested visitors to Fair Isle whilst hand-knitting my homespun into much sought-after all-over hand-spun, hand-knitted Fair Isle jumpers. These days knitting and spinning courses for visitors to the Isle are provided by another gifted hand-spinner and hand-knitter, Kathy Coull of Upper Leogh.

From 1989 to March 2011, I was an active member of Fair Isle Crafts Ltd, a small, workers’ co-operative on the island, producing high quality hand-frame knitted garments which were sold direct to visitors to Fair Isle from all over the world.

Between 2008 and 2011, I also produced a number of ‘Exclusively Fair Isle’ hand-knitted hats, scarves, jumpers and wrist-warmers, made using a variety of commercial and hand-spun wool from locally grown Fair Isle and Shetland fleeces, including those from hand-shorn sheep on my own croft. "

Each ‘Exclusively Fair Isle’ garment has been hand-knitted at home and guaranteed ‘Fair Isle made in Fair Isle’ by its own distinctive swing-tag, including the Scottish Crofting Producers Mark and membership number as a certificate of authenticity.

PLEASE NOTE:

From 2011 onwards - Unfortunately, due to a recurrent repetitive strain injury, I am now taking a break from knitting for commercial purposes and will therefore not be taking any more knitwear orders after January 2011.

A small number of my remaining 'Exclusively Fair Isle' hand-knitted garments are still available as stock and these will be sold on Fair Isle to visiting tourists during the 2011 season.

2012 - after a year of rest and recuperation, I am pleased to say that I am now able to hand-knit a limited number of my chunky Fair Isle beanie hats which, by popular request, will be on sale again to visitors on Fair Isle during the 2012 season.

My knitwear order book remains closed.

Contributed by Elizabeth Riddiford of ‘Exclusively Fair Isle’.