Fair Isle Knitting and Design E-Book

Nicki Merrall

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 244

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Traditional Fair Isle knitting and design skills were originally handed down from one Shetland generation to the next, with each new generation of knitters experimenting, adapting and extending the repertoire of patterns to develop the Fair Isle knitting we see today. Fair Isle knitting is fascinating - only two colours are used in any single row - yet the patterns and colours chosen combine to create something that is more than the sum of its parts. The distinctive combination of colours and patterns, ranging from the simple to the highly intricate, continues to inspire knitters worldwide. This beautifully illustrated book includes the development of Fair Isle knitting; a collection of Fair Isle patterns and motifs; exercises to develop a sense of colour and apply colour theory to Fair Isle knitting and a detailed step-by-step guide for the techniques used in Fair Isle knitting. Five original designs, with further ideas for their modification and development are included too as well as guidance on adapting and designing Fair Isle projects of your own.

Leseprobe

Fair Isle

Knitting and Design

Fair Isle

Knitting and Design

Nicki Merrall

First published in 2020 by The Crowood Press Ltd Ramsbury, Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

© Nicki Merrall 2020

This e-book first published in 2020

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 698 2

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

1 The History of Shetland and Fair Isle Knitting

2 Materials and Equipment

3 Pattern

4 Colour

5 Techniques

6 A Collection of Fair Isle Designs

7 Adapting and Designing Fair Isle Projects

Appendix 1: Other Useful Techniques

Appendix 2: Suppliers

Glossary

Bibliography & Resources

Index

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Over the years, many people have helped me to develop my love of knit design, starting with the members of the knitting group at Tilton on the Hill. These talented knitters suggested different themes for the group to try each month and in doing so introduced me to stitches and techniques that were new to me at the time.

My interest in knit design was developed on a more formal basis by Loraine McClean, my City and Guilds tutor, and the tutors at Nottingham Trent University, particularly Cathy Challender. They showed me that inspiration is everywhere and encouraged me to be curious about the possibilities when combining different stitches and colours. Working with the students who come to my workshops has helped me learn to understand the different ways that knitters learn and how to overcome their difficulties with particular techniques.

I should like to thank the people who have contributed directly to this book: Mary Leeson and Linda Hearn knitted most of the designs in this book, and Amelia Hodsdon did the technical editing of the written instructions for all the designs and gave much valuable food for thought.

Finally, I should like to thank my family and Andrew, who have encouraged and supported me.

ABBREVIATIONS

alt

alternate

cm

centimetre(s)

cont

continue(s)/continuing

dec’d

decreased

dec(s)

decrease(s)/decreasing

foll

following

g

gram(s)

in

inch(es)

inc’d

increased

inc(s)

increase(s)/increasing

k

knit

k[no.]A/B

knit number of stitches stated with yarn A/B, etc.

k2tog

knit next two stitches together (

1 st dec’d

)

m

metre(s)

M1

make 1: insert left-hand needle, from front to back, under strand running between the tips of the two needles; knit strand through back loop with right-hand needle (

1 st inc’d

)

M1L

make 1 left: insert left-hand needle, from front to back, under strand running between the tips of the two needles; knit strand through back loop with right-hand needle (

1 st inc’d

)

M1R

make 1 right: insert left-hand needle, from back to front, under strand running between the tips of the two needles; knit strand through front loop with right-hand needle (

1 st inc’d

)

mm

millimetre(s)

p

purl

p[no.]A/B

purl number of stitches stated with yarn A/B, etc.)

patt

pattern

pm

place marker

rem(s)

remain(s)/remaining

rep

repeat

RS

right side(s) (of work)

s2kpo

vertical double decrease: slip next two stitches together as if to knit, knit one stitch, pass slipped stitches over just-knitted stitch (

2 sts dec’d

)

sl

slip one stitch purlwise (unless otherwise stated); for reference, this is a frequently used abbreviation for ‘slip’ in line-by-line or contracted written instructions

sm

slip marker

ssk

slip, slip, knit: slip one stitch knitwise, slip one stitch purlwise, knit two slipped stitches together through back loops (

1 st dec’d

)

st(s)

stitch(es)

WS

wrong side(s) (of work)

yd

yard(s)

INTRODUCTION

I am fascinated by Fair Isle knitting. The patterns used and colours chosen combine to create something that is more than the sum of its parts. Learning the techniques involved and designing your own items can make you only more in awe of the knitters of Fair Isle and Shetland who developed an original style of knitting that is recognized worldwide. This book is my homage to those knitters.

The book starts by looking at the history of Fair Isle knitting and its context in Shetland. Fair Isle knitting is often described as a traditional knitting style. People may assume that its history began long ago. In one sense, this is true: the techniques of stranded colourwork have been practised for several centuries. However, the particular combination of patterns and colours that began to be used on Fair Isle and was developed throughout Shetland has a relatively short history. What we know as Fair Isle knitting today is a testament to the creativity of Shetland knitters, both in their curiosity to create new patterns and try different colour combinations and in their response to technological advances and changes in fashion.

This book is aimed at knitters who wish to learn the strandedcolourwork techniques as used in Shetland. Another aim of this book is to encourage you, regardless of your experience of knitting stranded colourwork, to be curious and to create your own designs. Depending on your previous experience, you may wish to start by exploring Fair Isle patterns, developing your sense of colour or learning Fair Isle techniques.

The pattern collection includes the different types of patterns used in Fair Isle knitting. Some of these patterns were borrowed from other textile crafts, such as embroidery. The origins of other patterns are unknown. Nevertheless, you will see common themes and motifs in the different types of patterns.

Creating new colour palettes may seem daunting; however, some knowledge of colour theory will help you with this. It is possible to use knowledge of colour theory to develop your sense of colour, by using simple exercises. This will help you to understand how colour is used in Fair Isle knitting. Finally, you can learn how to use an inspirational image to help you to choose a yarn colour palette.

Shetland knitters needed to use quick, effective methods because they were knitting items to sell. Their preference when doing Fair Isle knitting was and still is to work in the round, so that the knitter can always see the right side of the knitting and avoid purling. Fair Isle knitting uses two colours per round; Shetland knitters use a variety of methods to hold both yarns at once. Working in the round means that everything is knitted as a tube: sometimes, this tube must be cut open to make a flat item.

This is not a book of patterns; however, a small collection of Fair Isle designs is included (seeChapter 6). These patterns are organized in order of difficulty, starting with a project suitable for knitters new to Fair Isle knitting and ending with one for adventurous knitters who are confident enough to knit a garment with steeks. As you move from one project to the next, you will find that the patterns require more techniques and use more colours.

Again, the aim of this book is to encourage you, regardless of your experience of knitting stranded colourwork, to be curious and try modifying these designs. Advice is given to help you to adapt Fair Isle patterns and try your own colour combinations and then move on to designing your own Fair Isle-style accessories and garments.

    CHAPTER 1    

THE HISTORY OF SHETLAND AND FAIR ISLE KNITTING

Shetland (also commonly known as the Shetland Islands) is an archipelago of more than one hundred islands in the North Sea. Just fifteen of these islands are inhabited. The capital of Shetland is the town of Lerwick, and it is found on the largest island, called Mainland. The island of Fair Isle is about 25 miles (40 kilometres) southwest of the most southerly point of Mainland. Fair Isle is one of the most remote of the islands in Shetland. Shetland itself is about 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of mainland Scotland. It is nearer to Bergen in Norway (about 230 miles [370 kilometres] away) than it is to London (about 600 miles [965 kilometres] away)! These islands may seem remote to us today; however, Shetland was and still is well connected by maritime routes to mainland Scotland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Iceland, the Baltic countries and North America.

Shetlanders were able to survive through a combination of practising agriculture, fishing and knitting. Both agriculture and fishing are important in the history of knitting in Shetland. Agriculture provided the wool used for knitting, whereas fishing provided access to customers. For many centuries, the fortunes of Shetland knitters ebbed and flowed with those of the fishing industry.

A sleeveless sweater from the 1940s. This allover pattern, formed by tessellating a Norwegian star motif, was originally known as the Whalsay pattern. Courtesy of the Shetland Museum and Archives (#01378).

AGRICULTURE

Shetlanders were crofters. A traditional croft was a small area of cultivated ground used for growing crops that was worked by crofters, together with the crofters exercising pasture rights for common grazing land. Crofts were not normally sufficiently productive to support a crofter’s family and allow them to pay the croft rent, so crofters also relied on the sea for sustenance and income. This was so much so that Shetlanders have often been described as fishermen who farmed.

Most of the agricultural land in Shetland is more suitable for grazing than for growing crops. Consequently, agriculture is dominated by sheep rearing. Some crofters kept a cow and a Shetland pony. They grew crops including oats, bere (an old variety of barley), potatoes, kale and rhubarb.

Shetland sheep are a long-established primitive breed of small, short-tailed sheep. Their ancestors were probably Soay sheep (farmed by early Neolithic farmers in Britain over 4,500 years ago) and sheep from Norway (brought over by the Norwegians who settled in Scotland and the Northern Isles around ad500). Shetland sheep are very hardy; they cope well with the harsh climate on the islands and thrive on limited pasture.

Shetland sheep have a very fine, soft fleece, which comes in a wide variety of colours and patterns. The Shetland Sheep Society recognizes eleven main whole-fleece colours and thirty different fleece markings. Many of these colours and markings have Shetland-dialect names. The main whole-fleece colours are black, shaela (dark grey), emsket (bluish-grey), grey, light grey, white, mioget (warm yellowish-brown), musket (pale greyish-brown), fawn, moorit (reddish-brown) and dark brown.

Shetland sheep, like sheep of other primitive breeds, shed their fleece in spring. The old fleece develops a weak point as the new fleece grows. The old fleece can be plucked from the sheep by hand, which is known as rooing. This traditional technique removes the old fleece, without damaging the new growth. After rooing, the wool is cleaned; teased, to remove the coarse wool; carded or combed, to straighten the fibres; spun; and then used for weaving or knitting. All these processes were done by hand until around 1890, after which raw wool was sent to the Scottish mainland for teasing, carding and spinning. By the 1920s, dyed and machine-spun yarn was available to buy. Today, however, sheep are usually sheared by using hand shears or electric clippers.

See the resources of The Shetland Sheep Society listed in the section ‘Publications and other materials’, Bibliography and Resources, for the sources of the details provided in this section and for further information.

FISHING

From the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, Shetlanders carried out inshore shortline fishing. They used small, four-oared, open, wooden boats. The fishermen caught cod, ling and herring for their own consumption and for trade. They traded herring and salted whitefish as well as other produce, such as meat and knitted stockings, for things that they could not grow or produce themselves. Their customers were German merchants who visited Shetland, from May to September, each year.

During the seventeenth century, the Dutch fishing fleet came to Shetland every summer to fish for herring. The fleet was large and, as well as fishing boats, included large ships called busses, on which the herring were gutted and brined; merchant ships, which took the salted fish to the Netherlands; and escort vessels, for protection of the fleet and its cargo. The Dutch cure was considered the best way to preserve herring. It was a secret method that gave the Dutch a monopoly on the herring trade. While the Dutch fleet was in Shetland, the crew bought many knitted stockings.

In the early years of the eighteenth century, certain events led to an economic slump in Shetland. In 1702, while it was in Shetland, the Dutch fishing fleet was attacked by the French. Many boats were destroyed. Consequently, the Dutch fleet stopped visiting Shetland for many years. In 1707, the Act of Union meant that Shetland formally became British. A consequence of this was the introduction of high duties on imported salt. Shetlanders used salt to cure the whitefish that they sold to the German merchants. Because of the resulting increase in the cost of the cured whitefish, the German merchants stopped coming to Shetland. These two events led to a dramatic fall in demand for the knitted stockings of Shetland.

In around 1700, longline fishing was introduced to Shetland. The longer lines involved with this fishing method changed the nature of fishing in Shetland. Fishing now took place in deeper waters further from the shore, so bigger, six-oared, open, wooden boats with sails were used. This new style of fishing was known as Haaf fishing. A fishing trip involved rowing or sailing to the Haaf-fishing grounds, which were 20 to 40 miles (about 30 to 65 kilometres) offshore. The men would set miles of lines and then wait for the tide to turn, and later they would spend several hours hauling the catch in. They repeatedly set lines and hauled in the catch until they had enough fish to fill their boat. Then they rowed or sailed back to a Haaf-fishing station close to the fishing grounds. A fishing trip could take two to three days, depending on how good the catch was; the men made two to three trips a week. As the fishing grounds were all north of Shetland, the men at the Haaf-fishing stations could not return home between fishing trips. So, during the fishing season, which ran from early May to late August, the men lived at the Haaf-fishing stations. Older men and younger boys also worked at the fishing stations, to salt the fish. The salted fish were stored in a warehouse. At the end of the season, the salted fish were taken by cargo ships to Spain, and the men returned to their crofts.

As well as owning the crofts where the men lived, the lairds also owned the fishing boats and equipment, the stores at the Haaf-fishing stations and the cargo ships used to export the fish. The lairds paid the men for their catch in credit notes. These could go towards the rent for a man’s croft, but the men also had to use the credit notes to buy provisions at the fishing stations. The lairds paid little for the catch, and the store prices were high. This truck system ensured that the crofters became impoverished while the lairds became wealthy. Even during the season, Haaf fishing was dangerous; many boats and lives were lost in unexpected storms. However, the threat of being thrown off their crofts kept the men fishing. The Crofters Act of 1886 granted security of tenure to crofters and effectively ended the truck system and Haaf fishing.

In 1819, J.F. Donovan of Leith developed the Scotch cure for herring, and, in 1825, the salt duty was lifted. The availability of cheap salt meant that the herring catch could be preserved by using a high-quality cure. This led to the development of largescale herring fishing around Scotland, using safer, larger, sailed, decked boats and, later, steam trawlers. The herring fishing season started in May in the Hebrides, Shetland and Orkney, then moved southwards down the east coasts of Scotland and England, reaching Yorkshire in about August and East Anglia around October, with the season finally ending in December. Many crews worked the season by moving from the Scottish islands to East Anglia. The catch was landed at each port and processed there by young women known as herring girls. Many of the herring girls followed the fleet by land or sea and knitted in their spare time. The cured herring were exported to Germany, the Baltic States and Russia. Herring fishing peaked in the early twentieth century and then declined after the First World War. Around this time, Shetland knitwear was marketed directly to customers, so the fortunes of Shetland knitters were no longer dependent on those of the fishing industry. So, the major significance of herring fishing to Shetland knitting was not in providing customers but in exposing herring girls from Shetland to knitting patterns and styles from the east coasts of Scotland and England.

See the various resources listed in the section ‘Publications and other materials’, Bibliography and Resources, for the sources of the details provided in this section and for further information.

KNITTING

The difficulty in studying the origins of any textile craft is that few early examples survive. The consequence of this is that items that are in museum collections may not be representative of what was made in a particular era or location, and the provenance of the items may be uncertain or unknown. Historical sources can be useful, but the meaning of some words, such as ‘knit’, have changed over time. Therefore, our knowledge about the development of hand knitting and particular styles is disjointed, especially the earlier back in time that we look. However, we do know that knitting and knitwear have evolved over time. These changes have gone hand in hand with technological advances and changes in fashion. This applies just as much for Shetland as for other places.

Early knitting in Shetland

It is not certain when knitting reached Shetland, but, according to Richard Rutt, it was probably during the sixteenth century (Rutt, 1987). Knitters in Shetland, just like knitters in other locations, made practical items for their families, as well as plain stockings to sell. Hand knitting was portable and required few tools and therefore could be and was done anywhere and by most people. Shetland knitters, in common with other knitters, knitted while doing other tasks, such as walking or waiting for the herring catch to be landed. Equally, the housebound could knit. Thus, knitting was a practical way to supplement incomes.

From the sixteenth century, there was a good enough supply of raw materials (from the crofters’ sheep) and a big enough market for knitted products that hand knitting became an important cottage industry in Shetland. During the seventeenth century, hand-knitted items were the main manufactured goods in Shetland. At this time, the two main markets for knitted goods from Shetland were the German merchants and the Dutch fishing fleet. Shetlanders bartered their knitted stockings for articles that they could not produce themselves.

In the early 1700s, the market for hand-knitted stockings declined dramatically, when the Dutch fishing fleet and the German merchants stopped coming to Shetland. The market for Shetland knitted stockings recovered a little, but demand never returned to that of the late seventeenth century. Knitters could sell some of their stockings to visitors to Shetland, but these knitters mostly relied on sales to local shopkeepers; these shopkeepers paid the knitters in goods or credit notes that, like the Haaf fishermen, the knitters could use to buy goods in the stores owned by the merchants.

Over the next century, hand knitting as an industry declined in most areas of Britain, because of the development of the knitting frame having reached a point where coarse machine-knitted stockings could be produced more cheaply than stockings knitted by hand. Hand knitting continued in areas where knitters developed a technique that could not be imitated by machine. For a while, Shetland knitters were able to sell fine hand-knitted stockings, but by the mid-nineteenth century even these items sold for a low price.

Some knitters in Shetland had mastered the art of spinning fine yarn and knitting fine lace shawls incorporating intricate openwork patterns that are now recognized as Shetland lace stitches. Shetland became known for these fancy shawls made in very fine yarn. Some were so fine that, even though they measured two metres square, they could be passed through a wedding ring. In contrast, the everyday shawls (haps) worn by the Shetland women were knitted in a thicker yarn, with a body in garter stitch and a wave edging (often of Old Shale pattern). The earliest piece of Shetland lace knitting in the collection of the Shetland Museum and Archives is a christening shawl from 1837. These lace shawls became extremely popular and were sold in London shops. Shetland knitted lace became so popular that knitting pattern books, which were first published in Britain in the 1840s, started to include instructions for patterns described as being from Shetland. However, in the early twentieth century, the demand for Shetland hand-knitted lace declined, when knitting machines were adapted to produce knitted lace.

Large Fair Isle patterns. This chart shows large Fair Isle patterns from a cap thought to date from the 1850s. There is a different motif within the lozenges along each horizontal band. The colour changes are mirrored on each side of the centre row of each band.

Early Fair Isle knitting

The technique of stranded colourwork is used for Fair Isle knitting, as well as for knitting in countries across northern Europe, including Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Stranded colourwork is one of the oldest knitting techniques known, with samples in museum collections dating from the twelfth century onwards (Rutt, 1987). This technique has been practised for long enough for knitters in different regions and countries to have developed their own traditional patterns and ways of using colour. It is not known when Fair Isle knitters first used stranded colourwork or when they developed their distinctive style.

The earliest known piece of stranded colourwork to have been found in Shetland is a knitted purse. It was found in a peat bog near Gunnister in 1951, along with the remains of a man and various items of clothing. The purse is thought to date from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. The acidic conditions in the bog preserved the textiles, with the approximate date of production of the purse having been determined from the style of clothing and dates on Dutch and Swedish coins found in the purse. The purse was worked in stocking stitch, with three narrow, horizontal bands of simple stranded colourwork patterns. It is not known whether the purse was made in Fair Isle, elsewhere in Shetland or elsewhere in Europe.

Despite there being many visitors to Shetland and Fair Isle, there are no written records or other surviving examples of Fair Isle knitting until the 1850s. One of the first written descriptions of Fair Isle knitting is in an account of life in Shetland that was written by Eliza Edmondston in 1856. She claimed that the colourful Fair Isle patterns were copied from items belonging to Spanish soldiers shipwrecked on Fair Isle in 1588 after the Spanish Armada. This story was widely disseminated in Victorian times and has been reproduced many times since. Had it been true, earlier travellers to Fair Isle and Shetland, such as Sir Walter Scott, would have seen people wearing these Fair Isle items and described them in their writings. Alice Starmore and Sheila McGregor both suggest that a more likely explanation is that the patterns were copied or adapted from patterns on an embroidered, knitted or woven item brought back with a sailor from Fair Isle or brought there by a sailor from elsewhere (Starmore, 1988; McGregor, 2003). Knowing how modern knitters like to adapt patterns from other sources, it is easy to imagine that knitters from Fair Isle did the same.

The main patterns that are characteristic of Fair Isle knitting are known as large Fair Isle or OXO patterns. These patterns are known as OXO patterns because they are formed from alternating six- or eight-sided lozenges (shaped like the letter O) and crosses (shaped like the letter X). Knitters could vary their designs by using crosses with different widths and changing the smaller motifs within the lozenges. Thus, the OXO framework was adaptable and allowed knitters a great deal of creativity.

The earliest items featuring large Fair Isle patterns are in the collection of the National Museums of Scotland. There are four items: a cap and purse made from wool and a second cap and purse made from silk, dating from around 1850. The large Fair Isle patterns are worked over seventeen rows, which is typical for this type of pattern. Together, these items illustrate another way that the large Fair Isle patterns could be varied: the patterns could be centred (so that the lozenges in different bands are stacked one above another) or offset by half of a pattern (so that, looking from top to bottom, lozenges alternate with crosses). They also demonstrate another feature typical of Fair Isle knitting, which is that the colour changes are mirrored on each side of the centre rows of the patterns.

However, we cannot be certain that any of these items were knitted in Fair Isle or even Shetland. Alice Starmore and Sheila McGregor discuss these items in detail and conclude that their most likely origin is one of the Baltic countries (Starmore, 1988; McGregor, 2003). They give several reasons in their arguments.

Firstly, the knitter (or knitters) had mastered the technique of stranded colourwork, the use of colour, the variation of design and the placement of patterns. Each piece is beautifully worked, the colour changes are precisely mirrored about the centre rows of each pattern, many different motifs are used within the lozenges, and the OXO patterns are either perfectly aligned or offset. In contrast, all known pieces of early Fair Isle knitting are the work of knitters who were experimenting with motifs, use of colour and placement of patterns, with varying degrees of success.

Secondly, the two woollen items were not knitted with Shetland wool, whereas all known pieces of early Fair Isle knitting were so.

Thirdly, the crown of the wool cap and the base of the wool purse feature an openwork pattern that is not found on any known pieces of early Fair Isle knitting. However, the same openwork pattern has been used on the cuffs of strandedcolourwork knitted gloves of Estonia and Finland from 1800 onwards. Also, the coloured rib on the woollen hat is found on items of Baltic knitting in museum collections.

Finally, museum collections in the Baltic countries have many examples of stranded colourwork dating from 1800, whereas the earliest known pieces of Fair Isle knitting date from 1860.

Therefore, it is likely that these items came from somewhere in the Baltic region and were knitted in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is possible that the simple stranded colourwork patterns found on the Gunnister man’s purse developed in Fair Isle into the sophisticated ones on the 1850 caps and purses. However, there are no surviving samples of Fair Isle knitting or any descriptions of these complex patterns in written sources from before the 1850s.

The earliest examples of Fair Isle knitting, found in museum collections, were knitted by using handspun wool of a limited colour palette. The colours used were the natural colours of Shetland wool or obtained by dye produced from local plants or a few imported dye materials. The use of imported dyes suggests that Fair Isle knitting developed some time after 1840, when dyes were first imported to Shetland. The most frequently used natural wool colour was natural white; occasionally, dark brown was also used. A golden yellow was obtained by using material from local plants such as ragwort and amphibious bistort. Dark blue and a rich red were obtained from imported indigo and madder, respectively. Such rich colour-fast blues and reds could not be obtained by using dyes made from local vegetable matter. Occasionally, natural dark brown was substituted for the more expensive indigo. Early surviving Fair Isle items were small and were knitted for family members and to sell to visitors to Fair Isle.

Early colour knitting from Fair Isle. This chart shows a colourwork pattern from a Fair Isle tammie, thought to have been knitted in the late 1860s.

One of the oldest pieces of Fair Isle knitting in the Shetland Museum and Archives is a tammie (a knitted beret, (#01423) from the late 1860s. It was knitted with handspun, hand-dyed Shetland wool. The beret is divided into eight segments that meet at the centre of the crown, worked in an allover diamond pattern. Alternating segments have either a pale background and dark diamonds or a dark background and pale diamonds. Both the background and diamond pattern are worked in horizontal stripes (see