For leftover month I want to knit a Fair Isle sock. This time designed by me thanks to the book Traditional Knitting by Michael Pearson. He wrote a book about the Aran, Fair Isle and fisher ganseys. He described the living tradition in handing down patterns from generation to generation in remote fishing villages in East Scotland, Cornwall, Fair Isle, Aran etc.

This pattern will be another one designed on the basis of fisher ganseys I started knitting this SKA sock down for my son. This time I intend to knit a cuff in ribbing with a repeating flower cross in plain stitches.

Progress pic of my left over Dalzill’s Tessella socks in Fair Isle originating from Lerwick Harbour. At first I chose five colors for the job because they would weigh enough together to make a pair of socks. But looking more closely to the pattern, I found out, I needed 8 different colors including some black as the main contrast color. So I added some and skipped some of the colors I already choose. My son helped me with the arithmetic. 30 Rows over 30 stitches. 7 Colors divided over 30 rows like, 1 row, 4 rows or 6 rows. The black contrast color is needed for one third of the weight of the yarn. So I needed 2 grams for two colors, 10 grams for one color and 14 grams for 4 colors besides the 35 grams contrast black. Because 2 grams would be enough for one of the colors I could take in a little bit of yarn I swapped last year in purple. So bright a color! And after all this counting I think I keep these for myself….

Shetland Museum
On the linked page you’ll find hundreds of pictures from abt 1880 till abt 1930, all with knitters on them! They look really great! I was looking for Mrs Dalzill from Lerwick (Shetland Eilands) but I did not find her yet….