PurlbedJacquard (Fair Isle) › Single-bed jacquard (floats at the back)
Multi-colour Fair Isle by feeder changes
The same repeat structure, but CC (and/or MC) changes colour in horizontal bands. Each single row still contains only 2 colours. Colour boundaries are perfectly horizontal and coincide with row boundaries, a giveaway that it is "fake" 3+ colour. Identical to fair-isle-two-colour.
- Single bed
- Needle selection
Machine types that can knit it
Demo swatch
Drawn for: Single bed, punch cardApproximate preview worked out from the bed chart, not a photo.The colours are the point here: the preview shows the pattern, and the fabric itself lies flat.
The full card
- What it looks like
- The same repeat structure, but CC (and/or MC) changes colour in horizontal bands. Each single row still contains only 2 colours. Colour boundaries are perfectly horizontal and coincide with row boundaries, a giveaway that it is "fake" 3+ colour.
- How it behaves
- As two-colour Fair Isle.
- How it works
- Identical to fair-isle-two-colour. The knitter swaps the yarn in feeder B (motif colour) or feeder A (background) at chosen card rows. The KH-820 manual's "Tulip" card tells you to change the feeder-B colour after step 32.
- Machines
- KH-821 yes (manual changes). A colour changer is optional and only helps for A-feeder alternation.
- Parameters
- Typical bands of 2–8 rows per colour. Change on the carriage side where the yarn tail ends. 1. Set up as two-colour Fair Isle. 2. Mark change rows on the card margin. 3. At each mark (carriage at the side), cut or park the old yarn and thread the new one in B (or A). 4. Hold the new tail for the first 2 rows.
- Card design rules
- Design each band as a 2-colour sub-chart. Plan colour changes at row boundaries. A tall colour plan may require the card to be longer than the repeat (unique rows rather than repeated rows).
- Charting
- Same ■/□ chart, plus a colour column at the right margin listing the A and B yarn per row band (e.g. "rows 1–8: A=cream, B=navy; rows 9–14: A=cream, B=red").
- Limits and common problems
- Many tails to weave in. Forgetting a change shifts the whole colour plan. A true 3-colours-in-one-row design is impossible single-bed; it must be redesigned.
- Combines with
- two-colour Fair Isle, stripes, knit leader.
Written in our own words from machine manuals, knitting references and swatching. Knit a test swatch before a whole piece.