If you're tallying votes, Sandi, I vote for the Complimentary Variant : Blues and Golds.   It's more lively.

Last year I went on a course for Fair Isle, we all did the same pattern but different colours, not one looked the same! Its amazing how colour can change the look of a garment.

I agree with the blue and gold as a favorite. On my monitor it looks like you used orange and blue. Orange is the compliment of blue. Yellow would be the compliment of purple.

I also vote for the blue and gold combo. It catches the eye.

ET in Nebraska

Please, not 'compliment', but 'complement' colors; no need to propagate the initial probably unintentional mistake/typo. The pattern is very lovely and offers abundance of color variations. Thanks, Sandi.

Would love to try Fair Isle but I find it a bit scary.  Maybe I can now on just the swatch.  At least I won't have to throw away a sweater.  Thanks , Carol from Mo.

I love the blue and orange swatch.  Opposing colors really make each other pop.  I can't wait to try my own swatch.

Orange and blue! Love it, love the complements -- yes, the other commenter is right. The word is "complement" with an "e"; think of the word "complete". Orange and blue complete one another, they are opposite one another on the color wheel, and added together as pure pigments, orange and blue make black, added together as pure light, together they make white. It is in this way that they complete (or complement) one another. May seem irrelevant or silly, but I love the derivation of the word "complement" and the sense of WHOLENESS conveyed by knowing its meaning as a variation of COMPLETE! P.S. Van Gogh loved complements: blue and orange especially!

The first pattern blocking would be beautiful in a Donegal tweed of golds and rusts and maybe hunter greens. The second pattern has a nice combination of opposite colors and is quite striking and holds my interest. It would be a beautiful ski sweater!

Eileen

Very beautiful.  Purples - my FAVE!!! Just learning to tackle fair isle. With inspiration and help like this, I plan to seek more options in the near future. Any recommendations on websites/books to find color wheels? Thanks!

I am now learning Fair Isle  I  love the chart but  i get lost  all the  time   try to  understand  how to read the  charts

I recently took a fair isle class and our instructor suggested if you wanted a "useful ' swatch to keep repeating the pattern until you had the size for a small bag/purse.

Are there any diagrams, explainations or videos showing how to do the Fair Isle knitting teqnique?  It looks just fabulous, but I am in need of step by step instructions for 'knitting dummies"..    anyone have an ideas for me??   Any help would be much appreciated!!  Thankyoiu