'I moved from France to Fair Isle and this is why'

The draw of Fair Isle has been all consuming for Marie Bruhat.

Marie Bruhat first experienced life on Fair Isle in 2015 - and two years later she moved there for good.

Ms Bruhat arrived as a textiles student and is now a crofter, an airport firefighter and a knitter in the Fair Isle tradition. Keen to share her skills with the world, she has now launched Fair Isle Academy, an online school for those wishing to learn the island’s unique knitting traditions.

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For Ms Bruhat, the way that knitting is immersed in the culture, history and landscape of the island offered an authentic lifestyle that was hard to find elsewhere. Life in a small community also deeply appealed.

She said; “In 2015, I really fell in love with the island. I went back to France and I graduated and all I could think of was living on Fair Isle.

“To me it was really the knitting tradition. I really was starving for that connection to something real and not just create something out of air and be in that fast fashion thing. I was wanting to be part of something bigger.

“ I thought it was very special to be grounded and connected to nature. I took on a croft, I have got sheep and I am part of the fire service . I am at the airport working as a firefighter.”

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Fair Isle, which sits between Orkney and Shetland, is three miles long and one and a half miles wide and has a population of around 50. Among nationalities are Argentinian, American and Dutch.

Islanders have led a number of milestone developments on the island in recent years, not least the installation of a 24-hour electricity supply for the first time.

While the origin of the famous knitting patterns that are desired around the globe is not known, there are several theories. Their similarity to Moorish designs has led some to believe the knitting style is linked to the shipwreck of the Spanish Armada ship El Gran Grifon, which was shipwrecked off the coast in 1588. Links to the Vikings who settled there have also been drawn.

Marie Bruhat moved permanently to Fair Isle in 2017 after falling in love with the island two years before. PIC: Daniel Craanen.Marie Bruhat moved permanently to Fair Isle in 2017 after falling in love with the island two years before. PIC: Daniel Craanen.
Marie Bruhat moved permanently to Fair Isle in 2017 after falling in love with the island two years before. PIC: Daniel Craanen. | Daniel Craanen

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Ms Bruhat said it took around 20 hours to make a Fair Isle jumper with half the time spent working on a flatbed machine - “a bit like a loom” - and the rest spent hand -finishing the garment. Each jumper costs £565.

The new course lanched by Ms Bruhat, which has been supported by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, focuses on the flatbed machine.

She said: “The knitting industry in Shetland and Fair Isle widely moved from handknitting to the flat bed machine to more industrial machine. I think a lot of people are coming back to handknitting and a lot of people have forgotten about the flat bed machine but they can give you such a good product and they shorten the time.

“If you are passionate about knitting you just want to knit as much as you can. The machine is a bit of a learning curve and traditionally on the island these skills were passed on from one person to another.

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“With the people decreasing on the island we don’t have so much time as people have multiple jobs. I was wanted to create something that anyone could access and learn the skills from anywhere in the world.”

Read more about Fair Isle Academy here.

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