Last week’s post with haps inspiration from Gudrun Johnston got a lot of hits and lots of you talking about haps. Lots of people were keen to try a contemporary design and equally as many interested in the more traditional design, Hansel.

To give you even more choice in the upcoming hap-along (cast on 10th April) I have two further Shetland shawl designs from Gudrun included in this week’s design picks from Brooklyn Tweed, first though are three haps by Mr BT himself, Jared Flood.

Tweed Baby is a worsted weight square shawl, which has all of the features of the traditional hap shawl, but with the addition of an i-cord edging instead of lace, which adds a very simple yet modern line to the blanket.

Available in 2 sizes and with two or three colours, the pattern costs £5.58 on Ravelry. While this looks so beautiful and woolly in the Brooklyn Tweed shelter yarn, I think a great baby friendly washable yarn like WYS Aire Valley BFL Aran would work well too.

Quill appeared in the BT Spring Thaw Collection 2012. Classic and elegant, this looks beautiful in one colour just as it does with different colours in the old-shale edging. It is knit in fingering weight and can be knit in two sizes 40 x 40 and 50 x 50 inches. The pattern costs around £5.58. This would be a really precious christening/baby gift.

If you like the square hap, but prefer something lighter and more ethereal then you will love Bridgewater, which is Jared’s homage to the Shetland shawl. I love the breathyness of that horsehoe lace border and I think that would be even more pronounced in a whispery soft alpaca, or perhaps mohair. This pattern is charted only, as are many of BT patterns. Please do read the pattern description carefully and see if they have your preferred method, as I do know some people prefer written instructions.

As mentioned, Gudrun Johnston has also designed Shetland haps for Brooklyn Tweed’s Wool People collections, namely Halligarth and Sandness.
Halligarth moves away from the garter centre to using a tree lace pattern. This is enormously effective and really draws the eye to the centre detail. There is no feather and fan border, which would detract from the tree design, but a simple lace point edging finishes it off beautifully. This is also a chart only pattern.

Sandness (pronounced Saness in Shetland) is quite possibly my favourite of all these haps, though it is difficult to choose just one. I love that while the border mirrors the ripples of the old shale pattern it is actually a textured pattern that stands out from the surface of the shawl. Perhaps this will be a good choice for the hap-along if you aren’t so interested in knitting lace. The central panel is also stocking stitch rather than garter and, while I think non-garter lovers are odd, I I know there are quite a few of you who may prefer that.

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Many thanks to Brooklyn Tweed and Jared Flood for the kind use of the images.
You can find all Brooklyn Tweed patterns at www.brooklyntweed.com
Prices are shown as converted from dollars and are the prices currently on Ravelry at the time of writing.