Two haps that have been firm favourites with people eager to cast on for my hap-along (10th April) are from designer Kate Davies.
A Hap for Harriet and Northmavine hap take a side step away from the traditional idea of the square hap, but the design reinterpretations are fresh nod at the openwork construction and “half” hap shape.
A Hap for Harriet is a laceweight pattern which is knit sideways, from end to end, and those beautiful sweeping lace points are worked along with the garter of the body. The resulting shawl is elegant and timeless and freshens the concept of the hap shawl.
This shawl would be beautiful in a hand-dyed lace weight yarn and, really, why would you even want to look further than the recommended yarn from Old Maiden Aunt Shetland 2ply? (Grellow all the way, for me!) A very lovely substitution would be Jamieson and Smith 2ply lace.
The Northmavine Hap, knit in J&S jumper weight yarn, takes the familiar openwork edging of the hap border and re-imagines the design. It is lovely to see how effective the continuation of the border pattern is over the whole shawl and I do love to see these chevrons rippling, like the waves that inspired it…and the ripples of the sand echoing it in the picture is pretty spectacular too.
Northmavine hap is included in the Colours of Shetland book, which is available from Kate’s website, and costs £14.99. Hap for Harriet is available via Ravelry and costs £3.95.
The hap-along cast on date will be 10th April and you can read more and join in with the conversation in the KnitBritish ravelry group.
Next week there won’t be a post as I will be at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, but I will be back the following week with some crochet haps!
If you are still looking for yarns for your hap you could tootle off to Blacker Yarns have a lovely offer for KnitBritish readers – 15% off at the checkout with the code KNITBRITISH2015. What a lovely, enabling offer?!
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all images are copyright Kate Davies and are used here with her kind permission. You can find Kate at her website katedaviesdesigns.com; on instagram as @KateDaviesDesigns; twitter as @KDavieDesigns and on Ravelry.
I keep going backwards and forwards on whether I should join the Hap-along or not…. I love the look of the haps, I need and want to knit a shawl – but I am really really bad at KALs (meaning that I join them and then knit everything else but the thing I should knit for the KAL).
So I might just follow the Hap-along, and cast on my hap in my own time (now there is a thought what to do with all my leftover Holst yarn – knit Hansel!!!!)
Enjoy EYF
Connie