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Knitspiration
๐ How one sweater made Fair Isle famous
We tend to think of influencers as a more modern invention.
You might imagine 20 something couples traveling the world in converted vans.
Or maybe ridiculously well organized home cooks who somehow have studio quality kitchens.
Heck technically we're influencers here at the Yarnist, just without the cute outfits.
But before social media had Korean beauty product hauls, and Hollywood had everyone cutting their hair like Farrah Fawcett, we had the Royals.
In fact the British royal family has influenced western culture in ways you probably never realized.
Did your partner ever wear a suit?
Thank King Charles II.
Do you put up a Christmas tree?
That's all Queen Victoria.
And if you've knit anything with Fair Isle, it's mostly because of Edward, Prince of Wales.
The Prince of Wales (third from left) in golf clothes and plus fours, 1931 (via Wikimedia Commons)
The worst-dressed man in London
Edward became Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday.
"We had a buttoned-up childhood, in every sense of the word," Edward wrote.
His father complained when he skipped gloves at a ball.
So Edward pushed back: two-tone shoes, turned-up trousers, loud check suits and baggy knee-length golf trousers.
A courtier said the King "hauled him over the coals for being the worst-dressed man in London".
He was the most photographed celebrity of the 1920s.
Later he explained why.
"All my life I had been fretting against those constrictions of dress which reflected my family's world of rigid social convention.
It was my impulse, whenever I found myself alone, to remove my coat, rip off my tie, loosen my collar and roll up my sleeves."
It was, he wrote, "a gesture aspiring not merely to comfort but, in a more symbolic sense, to freedom."
That rebellious free spirit showed up at St Andrews in 1922, when he became captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.
Rather than the usual tweed jacket, Edward teed off in a bright Fair Isle jumper.
And the crowd went wild.
Not literally. It was still golf.
But after the tournament a fashion craze began.
Fair Isle on a postcard from the early 1900s (via Wikimedia Commons)
A brief history of Fair Isle
The style came from Fair Isle, a tiny island alone in the sea between Shetland and Orkney.
For centuries, mothers there taught their daughters to knit.
The rules were simple: only two colors in a row.
And the palette stays small: natural sheep colors, plus a few dyes like indigo and madder.
Unfortunately, all that hard work didn't pay very well.
In fact, Shetland knitters were often paid in goods, not cash.
They made stockings and shawls but the merchants made the cash.
Around the start of World War I patterned Fair isle sweaters started showing up.
So when Prince Edward wore one he was a literal trend setter on the cutting edge of fashion.
It would not only change how people dressed, but also the islands that knit for them.
Andrew Garfield in The Magic Faraway Tree (via Entertainment Film Distributors)
Fair Isle Fashion
Suddenly everyone wanted a jumper like the prince's.
And somebody had to knit them.
So the orders went north to Shetland.
By the early 1930s, Lerwick firms like Tulloch were supplying Fair Isles to Liberty in London.
For Shetland, royal fans meant sales, and women bringing an income home.
And the famous fans never stopped coming.
Twiggy and the McCartneys wore it in the 1960s.
In 1981 Lady Diana Spencer posed at Balmoral in a Fair Isle-style jumper.
In 2024 Sydney Sweeney wore two Fair Isle sweaters in one week.
But the true fans are the knitters who continue to keep the original traditions alive.
Every autumn knitters from as far as Japan and New Zealand travel to the isles for Shetland Wool Week.
There they continue passing on the knowledge that led to Prince Edward's sweater over 100 years ago.
Conclusion
Edward was king for less than a year before he gave up the throne.
However, his impact on fashion has lasted for over a hundred years.
And handknitting is just as obsessed with stranded colorwork as ever.
Luckily we get to knit it because we want to, not to make an income.
But what do you think?
Have you ever knit a project because it was trendy? Are you a fan of stranded colorwork?
Hit reply and share your feedback. I can't respond to everyone, but we read every response!
A film student who happens to knit took the ferry to Fair Isle, population 55, to find out how the island's knitters actually work. What he found is a short, warm film
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Good Goods
Eucalan Wool Wash
Fair Isle never looks its best straight off the needles. A good soak relaxes the stitches, so the uneven ones settle and the floats lie flat behind the colors. Eucalan is a no-rinse wool wash with lanolin: soak, squeeze out the water, and lay it flat to dry.
ChasobenDesigns 4-Ply Fair Isle Hat. Bands of small Fair Isle patterns stacked from a striped rib up to the crown, in fingering weight with two clear colour charts. A friendly first Fair Isle hat, and there's a matching cowl in the same shop. Get the pattern on Etsyโ
StorybookYarn Jamieson & Smith Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight. Undyed 100% Shetland wool in the 2-ply jumper weight that Fair Isle is knit in. It's woollen spun, so the stitches grip each other, which is what you want behind floats and at a steek. The shop sells new old stock, so it's $10 a ball, 40% under retail. Shop the yarn on Etsyโ
Shetland Wool Week 2027. The islands' yearly festival of Shetland wool and knitting has set its dates: September 25 to October 3, 2027. Every year has a patron's hat pattern, and last year's, the Birsie Beanny by Helen Robertson, is on the festival site. See the detailsโ
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