working on grids

Back in the day, I used to knit elaborate Fair Isle sweaters, using wool from the Shetland Islands and following chartered patterns. It was enjoyable work and I knitted a wide selection of patterns, although it has been many years since I made one. It used to make me smile that there were stories relating how the patterns were brought to the islands by Spanish sailors shipwrecked after the Armada. I am not sure I can quite imagine cosy fireside chats about knitting between the islanders and the sailors. More likely, if there is any link with the Armada,  the designs were copied from the clothing of poor drowned men. More likely is that they resulted, as did so many decorative traditions, as a result of trade.

I tell you this by way of saying how very similar the Fair Isle designs are to patterns I have discovered whilst I have been researching pattern darning . Of course, thinking about it logically and making connections between  aspects of textiles I hadn’t connected before, it isn’t very surprising-Fair Isle knitting and pattern darning are both worked on grids and thus share a common heritage. And of course, woven textiles are a much earlier variation on the same theme, and an early  expression of human artistic development.

My little samples above are inspired by different textile traditions. The top one is loosely based on patterns in  Miao embroidery from South West China  and the one at the bottom, which is very like Fair Isle , is taken from an excellent article about pattern darning here.