Modern fair isle knitting book / website?

Question

I'd like to do some fair isle knitting but as a beginner I'd prefer some small projects / items with just some fair isle incorporated.

I don't want to do a huge man's jumper all in fair isle but a lot of what I've found so far seems to be either men's jumpers or sweater vests.

Can anybody suggest books they've used with modern designs or websites that have fair isle patterns? It doesn't seem too abundant when I've looked is this because it's copyright?

And does fair isle refer to specific patterns or just this method of knitting with many different colours?

Thankie x

Answer 1

Maybe read through these websites for some ideas:

http://www.knitpicks.com/fair+isle+knitt...

http://fairisleknitting.blogspot.com/

Answer 2

Fair Isle is a technique that you can adapt to just about any item you want to attempt.  Take any repeating motif or peerie pattern and add a band of it to an item you want to knit, a sock cuff, a mitten hand, a tam or other hat, the only thing is that the number of stitches total for each motif (motif itself and any spacing stitches) must fit evenly into the overall number of stitches of the section of the piece  you are working them into.  Fair Isle is easiest done in the round, but can be worked flat, keeping in mind that it is a bit trickier to carry your yarn on the purl side of the item.

Answer 3

Fair isle is a technique of knitting small repeating patterns in multiple colors and carrying the other yarns across the back of the work.  While it looks really complicated, you will find that most patterns only call for two colors of yarn in any one row.  Any small repeating pattern will work, as long as there are no long sections of a single color.  The rule of thumb is no more than five stitches before changing colors.  

There are fair isle patterns for socks and mittens out there, that wouldn't be terribly difficult.  Sometimes they are referred to as Scandinavian or Norwegian patterns.