We're having a hap KAL!

On Tuesday, we announced the winner of our Spring Knit-Along (congratulations again, poppylillious!), and gave you a clue about our next KAL. You see, part of the prize was Kate Davies new shawl pattern, A Hap For Harriet. Our KALs so far have had us all working on the same pattern. This time is a bit different, because we're focussing on a style rather than a pattern. A hap is a traditional type of Shetland shawl, originally intended for warm everyday wear and worked in relatively substantial yarn. Haps are traditionally square in shape, with a centre panel in a simple stitch pattern (very often lovely squishy garter stitch). Around the square centre there's a lacy border, often in feather and fan pattern. Our two samples are like this - Jacqui's cream version is Jared Flood's Tweed baby blanket and Lisa's calm blue and neutral one is Gudrun Johnson's Hansel. The original Hansel pattern features a third section, a pretty toothed edging, that was omitted in favour of an i-cord cast off in this case (this is one of the techniques that we'll post a tutorial on during the course of the KAL). But nowadays there's many, many variations on the theme - Kate Davies' A Hap For Harriet is crescent-shaped, for instance, and Veera Välimäki's ¾ Hap is three quarters of a square. You can use a hap as a wrap yourself, or a baby blanket, or a sofa throw, simply depending on the size you make. And there's crochet versions too. Endless variation, and every single one gorgeous! So our Hap KAL works like this: choose a hap pattern (you'll find dozens of patterns at this Ravelry link) and join in the fun! When you're purchasing the yarn for it, you'll get a 10% discount. Just mention the Hap KAL in the shop or on the phone, and if you're ordering online, use the code HAPKAL. We'll have a stickied thread in the This Is Knit Ravelry group for support and for chatting about patterns and yarns, and we'll be blogging tutorials and regular updates about our progress. Every KAL member that posts a picture of a finished Hap in the Ravelry thread before September 7th will be entered in to a Prize Draw too. It's going to be enormous fun, so jump in!