Knitting Fair Isle on a Flatbed Knitting Machine

Today, I want to share with you my experience of learning to knit Fair Isle, or stranded colourwork knitting, on a flatbed knitting machine. Over the past 10 months, I’ve made so many swatches and learned so much from my mistakes and I’m SO excited to share my current project with you. I have FIVE main ah-ha moments from knitting fair isle on a knitting machine that I wanted to share with you on today’s Taking Back Friday vlog.

The five things big things I learned about knitting Fair Isle on a flatbed:

1. Take care of your machine—maintain it and get it in working order.
2. Keep your space tidy—keep your work tidy and yarns tucked out of the way.
3. Learn where your punch card pattern begins. Is it row 4 or 5? Is it row 1?
4. Check everything before you begin. Check that you flipped the levers to the back, unlocked the punch card.
5. Pull out selvedge needles to bring the floats to the selvedges, making a nice, even cloth.

I would love to hear if you knit colourwork on a flatbed machine, how you approach it. If you have any tips or suggestions, I would love to hear from you in the comments.

IN THIS EPISODE

• what I’m wearing in the vlog: I’m wearing Chauncey designed by Isabell Kraemer. I knit this in SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Marine + a Party of Five mini-skein set in Gemstone.
• what I mention in today’s vlog: Here are quick links to items from the video…
  • The Fair Isle yoke sweater I’m knitting is the Stoodley Jumper, designed by Nic Corrigan at Whitehall Studio and knitting on a Singer SK360 knitting machine. 
  • You can also buy the Stoodley Jumper as a finished knit garment from Whitehall Studio.
  • The Machine Knit Community online space for machine knitters.
  • Nic Corrigan’s new book: Fair Isle: Machine Knitting Techniques.