The Fair Isle Jumper pattern is a classic 1940s pattern, featuring a stranded colourwork body topped with a neat square neckline and one-colour shoulder sections. Quintessential box-head short sleeves complete this iconic look.

Instructions are provide both to knit this sweater in flat pieces as the original or in the round to the armhole divide and simple gathered sleeve head instructions are also included if a box-head sleeve is not desired.

This stylish knit is designed to be worn with the matching Fair Isle Cardigan but would of course, be perfect worn by itself over a bias-cut skirt, wide leg pants or wartime style dungarees! The two patterns have identical instructions for the sleeves, which means you can use the long sleeve instructions for the cardigan to create a long sleeved version of the Fair Isle Jumper too!

We have used a soft colour palette of mint green with spring-time shades of pink, lemon and blue, but this jumper would look fabulous in practically any colour combination you could think of and is a great pattern for using up left-over yarns!

Fair Isle Jumper is knitted using Excelana North fingering weight a soft, fingering weight 100% British wool, spun for us in nearby Yorkshire and dyed in-house by Susan and her team. Shown here in shades Nile Green, Persian Grey, Powdered Egg, Alabaster, Cornflower Blue and French Rose.

Our model Theodora is shown wearing the second size 81-86cm (32-34in).

The pattern includes instructions for nine sizes to fit chest measurements between 71cm (28in) and 157cm (62in) and contains both clear written pattern directions, together with charted instructions for colour work areas plus a comprehensive schematic diagram and sizing chart.

Yarn kits are available at Susan Crawford Vintage.

Yarn
Susan Crawford Excelana North fingering weight, 100% British wool, 75% Cheviot, 25% Bluefaced Leicester (159m / 174yds per 50g skein approx)
4 (5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9) skeins, shade Nile Green
1 (1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2) skeins, shade Persian Grey
1 skein each shades; Powdered Egg, Alabaster, Cornflower Blue and French Rose.

Gauge
30 sts and 30 rows = 10cm (4in) over stranded colourwork and stocking stitch, worked flat, after blocking. We obtained this gauge using 3.25mm needles.

Suggested needles
Small Needles: 1 pair 2.75mm (US 2) needles
Large Needles: 1 pair 3.25mm (US 3) needles

Notions
Stitch holders

Techniques
Fair Isle / stranded colour work
Option to knit flat or in the round