Confessions of a Lazy Blocker

September 20, 2019 Katherine Radburn

I’ve spent the better part of the summer working on a full-sized Hansel Hap for the arrival of my first wee one in October. It’s been a pleasant knit, but a big one, so I was thrilled when I finished the last of the border edging points a weekend or two ago. On finishing, though, I was faced with a big question …. just how was I going to block it?

How to... Use a Hap Blocking Frame

January 17, 2017 Jen Arnall-Culliford

Blocking your knitting is one of the most satisfying and transformative processes. What starts out looking like a hair net, can be utterly changed by a good soak and stretch. While blocking has a place in the finishing of most knitwear, it is particularly vital when knitting lace patterns. Stretching out the wet lace and leaving it to dry reveals the beauty of the patterning in a way that's almost unimaginable when you are knitting the tangled-looking mess.

The following tutorial is going to show you how to use a hap blocking frame (aka hap stretcher) to block square, rectangular and right-angled triangle haps and shawls. Hap is the Shetland word for a shawl designed for everyday wear.

FO Prizes

August 3, 2016 Jen Arnall-Culliford

It seems that all I do these days is blog about the #hapsarehappeningKAL, but those days are numbered. The deadline to get photos of your finished haps to the FO thread is next Monday (8th August). We will then draw winners at random from the list of projects.

There are already examples of all 13 patterns in the FO thread and it has been a real privilege to follow the stages of their development and to see how the same pattern can look so different in different colours or yarns.

So what can you win? These are the prizes to date and there may be others to add.

First on the list is 3 skeins of Coop Knits Socks Yeah! yarn generously donated by Rachel Coopey. This is more than enough to make your own Uncia, or socks if you'd rather. Socks Yeah! comes in 50g skeins in 10 marled colours and is 75% super wash merino, 25% nylon.

Next up is 2 skeins of Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply in Pebble Beach donated by Fyberspates. The variegated brown-grey palette has attracted considerable discussion within the group, being described as 'magic yarn' by some as the number of shades is greater than those you can see in the photograph.

Lucy Hague has generously donated a copy of her stunning Celtic Cable Shawls ebook as a prize. I know from reading through the forums that many knitters have come across Lucy for the first time, and I think that this collection will give huge enjoyment and satisfaction to the winner.

ADDED
You could also win your choice of product from the AndSewToKnit Etsy store. I have the honour of owning a wonderful AndSewToKnit apron for working at shows, and it's beautiful and still looks great 5 years on. Choose from yarn bowls, knot bags and more. Many, many thanks to Yvette for this lovely prize!

The final general prize is a set of pattern downloads from the designers that contributed to The Book of Haps. That's a whole lot of knitting!

If you've finished a Nut-Hap and posted a photo in the Nut-Hap FO thread, you'll be in with a chance to win this rather splendid tea towel, donated by Frome-based illustrator designer-maker Mary Kilvert.

If you're ever in our neck of the woods, Mary's shop, right at the top of Catherine Hill, is well worth a visit to see all of the wonderful objects bearing her designs. Oh, and you can order online, so if you fancy your own handmade sheep, sheep mug, or notebook......

Finally, if you've double dipped into our KAL and the Knit British bookofhapsalong, you could win a copy of Lucy Hague's Illuminated Knits ebook and a skein of Yarns From The Plain hand-dyed yarn. These won't be drawn until the Knit British KAL finishes.

We are enormously grateful to everyone who has donated prizes here and throughout the KAL. It has added an extra dimension to what has been a truly inspiring couple of months.

If you're still deep in WIP territory, you have a few days to power through, so drop everything else and get knitting!

If you'd like to purchase some of Mary Kilvert's beautiful products, have a look at the options below:

And you can also purchase a copy of The Book of Haps from our online store:

Hapsarehappening Still

July 25, 2016 Jen Arnall-Culliford

In the month since the publication of The Book of Haps, the hapsarehappeningKAL has racked up nearly 200 projects on the needles, or finished. I wonder how many there will be by the time the KAL finishes on the 8th August. Whatever the final number of projects, there will have been a bewilderingly large number of stitches worked, and hopefully a huge amount of joy in the making process, joy in completing projects, and in many cases joy in receiving a hap as a gift.

As usual, I've picked a few project photos that have caught my eye. First up is this Lang Ayre in progress, made by Kharis (peeriewyes). I'm a great fan of the delicate pastel palette she's put together.

The original colours of Happenstance were chosen to match Romi Hill's surroundings in Nevada. This photograh shows another Happenstance, made by Dawn (nibbleknitter), again with colours that reflect her surroundings.

My favourite photo of Houlland in the book is undoubtedly the one with the hap and its shadow as it reinforces the lacy nature of the hap. Similarly, I really like this Houlland by Pauline (Ranadi). The yarn gives the lace motif firm definition.

I may have mentioned previously how much I admire Uncia, so here's another fine example, made by Tina (TinerW).

The last two rounds of prizes have been generously donated by Carol Feller and Romi Hill (last week) and by Hélène Magnússon and Lucy Hague (this week). The lucky winners are SaraMW, kathrynsmyth, fluffspangle, wolke100, Dimityknits, soupdragon, Gynnifer and Annarga.

Keep tagging your projects with hapsarehappeningKAL to be in with a chance of winning prizes as next week is the last for WIP prizes. You can see all projects at a glance here, and see all the Instagram photos posted of projects here. Come back next week to see more beautiful creations.

Keep up to date with all we're doing:
Arnall-Culliford Knitwear on Facebook | Arnall-Culliford Knitwear on YouTube | Arnall-Culliford Knitwear on Ravelry | JenACKnitwear and VeufTricot on Twitter | JenACKnitwear and VeufTricot on Instagram | And sign up in the sidebar to get our blog posts delivered to you by email.

All photos © of the respective knitters.

Dial H for Haps

July 14, 2016 Jen Arnall-Culliford

I have been slow in putting together this week's progress post, but I have been giving it some thought. One thing that's struck me throughout the whole Book of Haps project has been the number of designs that began with the letter h, roughly half. Except for the obvious, I've no idea whether naming haps with an h was deliberate on the part of the designers or not.

With this in mind, I'd like to share two finished h haps, Happenstance and Houlland.

Top: Happenstance made by Kim (kimknitessex); Bottom: Houlland made by Julie (Crochet-Julie)

It should be pointed out that Julie's Houlland is one of 3 haps she's finished already!

Last week, I featured a partial Hapisk, one of the larger projects in the book. This week, we were treated to the sight of a completed Moder Dy, a square some 5 feet across before blocking. I am hugely impressed with the speed at which Elithea has produced this, and really look forward to seeing it laid out to its full size in the near future.

Of the other massive projects, a few more Hexahaps have been shared in the last week, and this half Hexahap by Caroline (lindyhopper) is all but finished. If you click through on the link to her project page, you get a really good feel for the modular nature of the design.

Random weekly prizes for this week have been kindly provided by Martina Behm and Gudrun Johnston and go to Dimityknits, daynasue, MonkSqueeDunk and 0bev0.

Keep tagging your projects with hapsarehappeningKAL to be in with a chance of winning prizes. You can see all projects at a glance here, and see all the Instagram photos posted of projects here. Come back next week to see more beautiful creations.

All photos © of the respective knitters.

HapsarehappeningKAL Weekly Progress

July 6, 2016 Jen Arnall-Culliford

All over Knitlandia, knitters are making haps in all sorts of shapes in all sorts of yarn. This week, I've picked up some pictures of the haps that weren't featured last week.

Working backwards, first up is a finished object: Lucy Hague's Uncia, made by Danielle (KnittingNixon)

I am constantly impressed with the way that Lucy managed to reproduce the architectural lines of great cathedrals of Europe and this and all of the other Uncias out there are permanent monuments to Lucy's skill as a designer.

While some of the haps are relatively quick to knit, there are a few enormous designs that take some doing. Moder Dy by Kate Davies and Hapisk by Hélène Magnússon are two of these.

Georgie (GeorgieVinsun) has got further than this photo suggests, but you can see the wave motif that gives the pattern its name very clearly.

Pip (RamsayBaggins) is charging through Hapisk. I find the colour combination almost mesmerising, and although it wasn't the inspiration, I am strongly reminded of photos of Saturn when I look at the stripes.

Of the smaller haps, Montbretia by Carole Feller and Theme and Variation by Veera Välimäki have proven to be popular.

Beverley (0bev0) has chosen colours inspired by wildflower meadows to make her Montbretia and they work fantastically well together.

Trish (Trish88) has gone for an attractive blue and grey palette for her Theme and Variation.

One of the ongoing discussions within the KAL has around choosing a favourite bird, and then matching yarn to plumage to customise the Nut-Hap. There will be birds from all over the world represented.

This example, that was recently completed by fluffspangle, takes its colours from the greenfinch. You can see how tucks are incorporated into the design, and to find out how to do this, Jen made a tutorial on adding tucks to your knitting last week.

The randomly selected winners of prizes, provided by Donna Smith and Jen, are: Nell9, carolynintheuk, nibble knitter, and elithea.

It's still not too late to get involved as the KAL will run into August: simply tag your Ravelry project with the tag hapsarehappeningKAL to join in. You can see all projects at a glance here, and see all the Instagram photos posted of projects here. Come back next week to see more beautiful creations.

All photos © of the respective knitters.

HapsarehappeningKAL Progress

June 27, 2016 Jen Arnall-Culliford

This knit-a-long (hap-a-long?) has been running in our Ravelry group for a whole week. I am already struggling to keep up, simply because there are so many people taking part and talking about how they're getting on. This is of course a good thing since it means that there are huge numbers of photos from all over to look at, lots of help and advice being doled out, and most of all knitters from all over the world sharing their love of knitting.

What's really heartening to see, is that every pattern within The Book of Haps is being worked on. I think it's a testament to the designers that they've all interpreted the brief differently and have come up with something that really appeals.

With so many projects on the go, it's been hard to feature them all, so here is a small selection of those still on the needles:

From top to bottom: Jen's (Gynnifer on Ravelry) Haemgaet, Brenda's (brendadada) Harewood, Debby's (sailingby) Hexahap, Sara's (SaraMW) Houlland.

And a few finished haps.

Top to bottom: Alix's (AlixPearson) Lang Ayre, Maylin's (blithespirit) Shore Hap, Annegret's (herbscat) Happenstance.

Each week we're giving away prizes, randomly selected from those of you who have shared your projects with us. This week Tom van Deijnen, designer of the Hexahap and Bristol Ivy, designer of Harewood have generously donated patterns for us to give away. Merrybg wins a Bristol Ivy pattern of her choice, Paisley wins a Tom van Deijnen pattern of her choice, and FolkieFi was very lucky to come up twice, so wins one of each.

It's not too late to get involved as the KAL will run into August: simply tag your Ravelry project with the tag hapsarehappeningKAL to join in. You can see all projects at a glance here, and see all the Instagram photos posted of projects here. Come back next week to see more beautiful creations.

Hapsarehappening KAL!

June 15, 2016 Jen Arnall-Culliford

Goodness me, it's been non-stop around here over the last couple of weeks! I had a great trip up to Edinburgh to hang out with these lovely ladies at Kathy's Knits:

Left to right are: Me, Lucy Hague, Kate Davies and Gudrun Johnston. What a treat it was to be in the same room, and be able to chat and catch up. It has left me very inspired for future projects...

We were there to sign copies of our new book, The Book of Haps, which has been landing on doormats across the UK, and will soon arrive throughout the world. It has been somewhat overwhelming to hear everyone's lovely words about this project, but the enthusiasm has been infectious, and an epidemic of startitis has erupted! I've got Theme and Variation on my needles already, but I feel that a second project from the book is imminent. So what better way to celebrate this, then to run a knitalong?!

Over in our Ravelry group (Arnall-Culliford Knitwear - have you joined yet?) you can participate in the HapsarehappeningKAL.

It's very straightforward:
The official kick-off is this Friday (17th June 2016), but no penalties if you can't wait that long! And it runs until Monday 8th August.

Please join the Arnall-Culliford Knitwear group.

Any pattern from The Book of Haps is eligible.

There will be weekly work in progress (WIP) prizes of single pattern downloads from the book’s contributors, as well as the following finished object (FO) prizes at the end of the KAL:
5 single pattern download codes
A yarn prize for a finished hap
A special bird-related prize for a finished Nut-Hap inspired by a specific bird

You are welcome to “double dip” in any other KAL running at the same time (other KAL rules may vary!). Louise Scollay is running a Bookofhaps-along in the KnitBritish group that is open to double dipping - so you can knit one hap an enter both KALs.

To be eligible for WIP prizes, please post an in progress photo in the WIP thread (chatter welcome), and in order to be eligible for an FO prize, please post in the relevant FO thread (Nut-Haps; General - no chatter please).

Details of the prizes will follow!
Please tag your projects here on Ravelry, and hashtag across social media, with #hapsarehappeningKAL

You can see Ravelry projects tagged hapsarehappeningKAL here: http://bit.ly/1YmKayg
And Instagram images tagged #hapsarehappeningKAL here: Instagram haps

I'm planning to finish off my Theme and Variation - just 2 more edging stripes to go! And then I need to dig in my stash to decide what my next project will be. I am thinking of either Harewood by Bristol Ivy, Uncia by Lucy Hague or Shore Hap by Martina Behm. Too many lovely possibilities! There are already 90 projects from The Book of Haps loaded on Ravelry, so it won't be long before I start falling in love with other options, I'm sure...

Shore Hap by Martina Behm

May 31, 2016 Jen Arnall-Culliford

If you look back through the blog archives, you'll see that I'm a bit of a Martina Behm fangirl... I've knitted both Hitchhiker and Miss Winkle, and I love the simple but interesting way that she uses stitches. So it is with delight that I can share the final design for The Book of Haps - Shore Hap by Martina Behm

Martina's designs are what some might describe as potato-chippy. You can't just knit one row, you have to keep having another and another. This beautiful hap starts at the point of one side and increases up to the neck. You then work another piece in a similar way, before joining the two halves together to create the kite-like shape at back neck. This is one of those designs you could wear in any number of ways. Head over to Kate's blog to read more about the maritime inspiration behind the Shore Hap, and to see many more pictures of this versatile piece.

I've so enjoyed sharing all of these fantastic haps with you all. There is such variation in the approaches taken by our fantastic team of designers. Now I can't wait for books to start landing with knitters - it's going to be fun watching everyone cast on.

Over in our Ravelry group we will be running a Book of Haps knitalong, starting in mid-late June. There will be prizes! So do join the group and keep an eye out for more details.

You can now see all of the patterns on Ravelry: The Book of Haps

Keep up to date with all we're doing:
Arnall-Culliford Knitwear on Facebook | Arnall-Culliford Knitwear on YouTube | Arnall-Culliford Knitwear on Ravelry | JenACKnitwear and VeufTricot on Twitter | JenACKnitwear and VeufTricot on Instagram

Hapisk by Hélène Magnússon

May 30, 2016 Jen Arnall-Culliford

Today, the penultimate hap has been unveiled - Hapisk - an Icelandic take on the Shetland hap. Hélène Magnússon has taken inspiration from traditional Icelandic knitted textiles, and applied them in her lovely Hapisk - an Icelandic hap.

Hapisk uses Hélène's own Gilitrutt Tvíband lace weight yarn in garter stitch stripes, with a lace edging pattern. Like all of the lace and cable patterns in the book, the instructions are provided in both written and charted formats, so you can choose which you prefer. For the larger charts, the written instructions are provided in the download Appendix to The Book of Haps, which forms part of the complimentary eBook accompanying all print copies.

You will find a fascinating interview with Hélène over on Kate's blog today. And all of Hapisk's technical details can be found through Ravelry: The Book of Haps

The next design will be revealed tomorrow on Kate's blog, so don't forget to stop by. You can see all of the patterns as they are released on Ravelry: The Book of Haps

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