I think this accusation is being a bit too prissy and the media are just enjoying stirring.
The show clearly stated Fair Isle ‘inspired’, and wasn’t claiming contestants were producing actual Fair Isle goods. You can go into many high street shops and even supermarkets during winter and find many examples of knits that are mass produced from different countries that take inspiration from the original Fair Isle design process. It was a Danish tv show that revived the trend.
The show is also filming in Scotland, has Scottish people involved with it, and it actually came across to me as them celebrating Fair Isle tradition and encouraging an interest in it, rather than insulting it.
It’s a bit like if Bake Off got criticised for baking poor imitations of Manchester Eccles cakes.
The show is about knitting, they need a theme each week, ideally as many of those being British…they will run out of options very quickly if they can’t use any regional traditions as inspiration.
All that being said, I found Tom’s voice when presenting/doing voice over, to be rather forced. He emphasises certain syllables and it feels like he isn’t used to talking naturally on camera. I also thought the “I’m Tom” random introduction was unnecessary, he’d already been introduced to the audience in the intro, he didn’t need to announce himself to the contestants like that.
I think you are missing the point re Fair Isle. it is a complicated and very specific knitting style, usually done in a very thin thread, so absolutely nothing like the designs or makes any of the contestants were doing. Then the only knitter that really tried to use a Fair isle theme, on huge needles with extra chunky wool, was eliminated. Its a bit like doing a vegan version of a pork pie, and then saying the vegan version is a tribute to the original pork pie. When it isnt, they are 2 totally separate things. Nothing wrong with either, only why try to use the publicity of the pork pie to promote the vegan pie?
And having watched some of the second week...thinking I should give it a second chance! A hat and outfit for an Italian greyhound????? Really??? What on earth were they thinking? The dogs looked ridiculous. I didnt like a single outfit the dogs wore, or think any of them were outstanding knitting or crochet.
And the judges wearing their original 90s jumpers...... nice historical link, as .it made them look even older! And they need to be careful to balance the nice as pie comments to the contestants to their faces, to the slightly harsher and honest comments made to camera in the voice over after.
And lets see Tom doing a bit of crochet, just to show how interchangeable the 2 crafts are. Please! I can happily crochet but find knitting so much harder. And vice versa,
I couldnt tell from to dogs outfits which bits were crochet and which were knitted, as they didnt show enough close up of how the outfits were made. So for instance where was the crochet in Holger's finished dog runway item?
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