A Shetland Lace Hap

At last my completed Shetland Mini Hap.

I am really pleased with how this has worked out. 

Details:

Pattern (and tuition) Elizabeth Williamson (contact for online classes for this and other lace see https://www.elizabethwilliamsonknitting.co.uk )

As followers  of my blog will know I, and 2 other Shetland and Shetland Lace Knitting Lovers have been been privileged to meet up with Elizabeth for lace knitting tuition for nearly a year now. Examples of what I have been doing are in earlier blog posts. 

Needles - 2.75 double pointed (and used a knitting belt) 

Yarn - James and Smith Shetland Supreme 2ply

Size when dressed- 32 cm x 32 cm 

Finished weight - 14.8 g 

Construction is a traditional Shetland method. Knit one lace edge, then the corresponding border, then the centre. The 3 other lace edges and corresponding border are knitted separately. These are then grafted together and make use of the ‘family’ graft, which has become known as ‘the Betsy join’. 

A big advantage of doing a hap this way particularly a full sized one, to me, is that you don’t have to carry much with you until you get to the construction. I read about people picking up hundreds of stitches and having the whole hap on their needles as they knit but this is not the case with this pattern. I think knitting a hap from the inside out, means mordanted e and more stitches as you knit but this is not the case here due to the construction. 

I love the well designed individual elements of this hap and the way they fit together. The boards (borders) being my favourite. I also learnt new ways of knitting stitches, including ‘holes’ with added definition. 

I had knitted one large scale hap previously. This was early in my Shetland Lace Knitting Career, in 2001. This  was the Brora Black Shawl, although I knit this in natural coloured 1 ply cobweb from Jamieson and Smith, pattern by Gladys Amedro. This was done from written instructions as no charted ones were available then. It was given to my son and his wife on the birth of our first  grandson in 2008. I have a ‘ post it’ on the pattern noting 95 hours! That sounds about right. It looks as if I knitted for about 1 to 2 hours at a time on it, by the crossings out on the post it! 

Unfortunately the photos are pretty poor….I’m glad my photography has improved too! 

This mini hap gives me another way of constructing a hap and I like the way the centre is not divided by ‘joins’.