The History of the Fair Isle Sweater and Some Fabulous Finds to Boot!
This Fair Isle Sweater from Target is really versatile and built to last.
If you’ve followed my Instagram you know that I love light, fun holiday movies. Brooke Shield’s holiday movie from 2023, A Castle for Christmas is a favorite. It has a running-away-from-it-all theme set against the backdrop of the rustic Scottish countryside to tuck into.
One of the movie’s main themes is knitting, believe it or not. This evolves when Brooke’s character rolls into a Scottish town and makes friends with a local knitting club - what could be cuter than that? In the movie Brooke learns to knit, and along the way wears a luscious Fair Isle sweater that is truly eye catching.
Every time I’ve seen this movie, this beautiful hand knit sweater sticks with me.
But what is it about the iconic Fair Isle sweater that is so entrancing? Well for starters, Fair Isle is more than a stitch pattern. Fair Isle is fairly isolated island (isle) north of Scotland in the Shetland archipelago.
It was on there in the early 1600’s that the distinct diamond patterning was first seen on fishermen's caps and sweaters. Passing ship captains entranced by the colorful patterns bartered with the islanders for goods.
At one time Fair Isle had more than 400 residents. These days that number is down to about 55 year round residents, and many of whom work in the sweater production business that the island is so well known for. The most renown Fair Isle sweater brand is probably Mati Ventrillon which offers stunning hand knits.
I tend to think of Fair Isle as a yoke type sweep of design that extends around the shoulders, like the two above. Apparently the original Fair Isle sweater decoration really pertained to a diamond pattern that had a lot of variation to it, and could be as simple as a border or cover the entire garment. I have always thought of this sort of decoration as a “fisherman’s knit”
Stanley Cursiter Painting 1923 Fair Isle Sweater.
While Fair Isle sweaters like mine can be picked up at Target for less than $30, true Fair Isle handknits run into the thousands. I’ve rounded up a few ideas below if you’re in the market for one of these timeless beauties.
