Show Notes
Self-designed fair isle cap and cowl

The point of designing these two pieces was to have a set that didn’t totally match but went together well.

The Hat

My version: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/ebarnaby93/katies-kep-2. If you go to the page, you can see my chart there, but I’ve also attached it here:

I used Katie’s Kep pattern (Wilma Malcomson), which was the Shetland Wool Week 2020 hat pattern. It’s free! Get the pattern here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/katies-kep

How to design your own:

-Figure out how many stitches are in the repeat (in this one, there are 24 stitches in the repeat)
-Use charts that have 24 stitches or a number divisible by 24 stitches for yours
-Try to knit the same number of rounds in your total hat body as are in the original chart
-Use a crown pattern that already exists (unless you want to design your own!)

The book I used for these pieces:
The Complete Book of Traditional Fair Isle Knitting by Sheila McGregor, first pub. 1981. Get it on Thriftbooks, AbeBooks, or Amazon used!

My hat has OXOs that are 11 stitches tall and 24 stitches wide and in the middle it has a snowflake pattern that is 7 stitches tall and 8 stitches wide. I always knit one plain round in between pattern bands, which you can see between bands 1-2 and 2-3 in the chart, but make sure to do this between your corrugated ribbing and again before you start the hat crown!

Colors I used:

-Background: Jamieson & Smith 2-ply Jumper Weight in color 1A
-Bright blue in the middle: BC Biogarn Shetland in color Sapphire
-Darker of the grey blue colors: Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift in color Lomond
-Lighter of they grey blue colors: Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift in color Highland Mist

(You can click on the hyperlinks to be taken to a page to purchase this yarn)

NB: BC Garn Bio Shetland is a slightly lighter weight than Spindrift and 2-ply Jumper Weight! This is ok with me because I’ve done a lot of colorwork using yarns of slightly different gauges, but make sure you knit and block a swatch to see whether your tension changes if using this yarn.

The Cowl

My Ravelry page: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/ebarnaby93/blue-fair-isle-cowl

This has a wider range of colors and backgrounds – rather than keeping one background color, I changed it with the foreground colors. I used two colors from the cap so that they would go together, and I kept the blue/white/grey palette the same.

I used Hazel Tindall’s method of laying out my darkest colors and my lightest colors and pairing them up with one another: lightest light with lightest dark going to darkest light with darkest dark.

Layout of colors in large bands from outside going towards inside:
1 round 203 alone
3 rounds 203 background/Atlantic foreground
3 rounds Eggshell background/Pacific foreground
3 rounds (middle) 1A background/Lomond foreground

Peeries (small separated pattern) all have Sholmit as background and BC Bio Shetland in dark navy as foreground

Get the yarn! Just click on the hyperlinks.
Background colors from dark to light:
Dark grey
Light grey
Light blue
White (See above)

Foreground colors from dark to light:
Navy (Vintage Heather)
Atlantic
Pacific
Lomond (see above)

Design features of cowl:
There are 140 stitches around. Large bands are all 15 stitches tall PLUS two extra rounds on either side of bands. Small bands are 4 stitches tall PLUS two extra rounds on either side of bands.

Large bands are all either 14 or 28 stitches wide

Small bands are 5 stitches wide

140 is divisible by 14, 28, and 5, so this works.

How to design your own:
-Find some charts you like
-Make sure they all have a width that works into your final stitch count (should be between 120-140)
-Knit until your cowl is about 28″ long (or twice this if you want to loop it twice around your neck)
-DON’T worry about catching floats unless they are more than 8-9 stitches
-DO weave in ends

Patterns to try if you want to knit one without designing your own:

–Kuvvel by MJ Mucklestone (find me talking about it in Episode 4)

-Vaarie by Gudrun Johnston

If you want my charts, just contact me at barnabyknits@gmail.com or via ravelry (ebarnaby93) or Instagram (@barnaby_knits). They’re not all neat and nice like my hat chart (and they need a little bit of explanation), so I decided not to post them, but if you do want to knit one just like mine I would be happy to share.