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Fair Isle is the one that is not a joke. It takes its name from a small island between Orkney and Shetland, it is a genuine knitting tradition with a few centuries behind it, and it is the reason the Christmas jumper was ever a respectable garment in the first place. Everything else in this section is novelty. This is knitwear.
What makes a Fair Isle a Fair Isle is the construction: bands of small repeating geometric motifs, worked in a handful of colours, with each row using only two at a time. That is why the patterns look the way they do, and it is why a good Fair Isle reads as craft rather than print. On a Christmas version those motifs become stars, snowflakes, trees and reindeer, but the structure is the same as it ever was.
This is comfortably our largest design section and the one to come to if you want a festive jumper that is still a perfectly good jumper in February. Look for a knitted pattern rather than a printed imitation – printed Fair Isle flattens and cracks after a few washes, where the knitted sort softens and improves. Cream, navy and deep red grounds are the classics, and they are classics for a reason.
