Goodness, I enjoyed this book:
In addition to a selection of contemporary patterns, The Book of Haps contains a series of essays that explore the history of haps, giving wonderfully nuanced answers to tricky questions like these:
- What is a hap? How does it differ from a shawl? What are “fancy haps” and “hap shawls”?
- How should a hap be constructed? How were they traditionally constructed?
I won’t spoil the book for you by giving you its answers here. But I will say this: it’s a fantastic overview of a fascinating subject. So much so that I intend to re-read the book, to refresh it in my memory, right before visiting the Shetland Museum as part of the Northern Isles Knitting Cruise.
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I may be reading about Shetland lace, but I’m still spending all my knitting time playing with brioche. Ironically, the two projects taking up most of my time are both do-overs.
This is a re-start of the project I showed in my September newsletter. Put simply, I got bored with the plain shape, and with the plain rib fabric. So now it’s a boomerang (like Jesse), with Thumbs Up patterning throughout. Yay! So much prettier. So much more interesting.
And this is a re-start of the project I showed in my October newsletter. I wasn’t really in love with the yarn I was using... and then one of the highlights of teaching at Camp Stitches Saddlebrook was a private tour of Laura Bryant’s studio and chance to shop for Prism yarn. Oops, there went the yarn diet.
The current plan is to use the Petite Madison in Woodlands as color A throughout, and to use the the gradient set to fade color B from light to dark as many times as the yarn allows. But I’m already starting to itch from the plain rib. Should I add in some patterning as the shawl grows? Or keep the focus on the color fades?
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On the bright side, I completed the cowl I started last month.
The idea was to replace the blue cowl, also knit in Branches...
...which I thought I’d lost. But, naturally, after knitting the replacement, I found the original. Oh, well. Now I have two class samples in the same stitch pattern, so I can talk about how yarn choice affects the way a pattern looks.
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After wrapping up my October travel, I finally had the time (and mental bandwidth!) to tweak Stitch-Maps.com as suggested, moving the “ current row” buttons to the upper-right of the stitch map image.
The buttons’ new location lets knitters on mobile devices move their current row more easily . And yet the buttons only appear when current row highlighting is enabled, so they shouldn’t get in anyone’s way.
Questions? Comments? Check out this Ravelry thread. |
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Lingo, old and new
Project Gutenberg is a digital library of over 60,000 free ebooks. All are in the public domain – most because they’re old enough for copyright limitations to have expired.
Exercises in Knitting by Cornelia Mee is one of these books. Dated 1846, it contains dozens of patterns with intriguing names like “Children’s Gaiters” and “Fish Serviette” – but all are presented in antiquated lingo.
Enter irishlacenet and stitch maps! Over the past few weeks, she’s mapped 31 of Mee’s patterns. I’m thrilled she’s included links back to the original sources, and noted where the original patterns needed some... ah, how shall we say it?... creative interpretation.
Two of these patterns have really caught my eye – to the point where I might need to get out yarn and needles and see how they knit up.
Another Pretty Pattern for a Knit Purse mixes beads and faggoting. Given that the beads are placed next to yarn overs, I have to wonder: Will they slide around? Where will they sit, really?
For a Knitted Penwiper makes use of brioche, short rows, and a sawtooth lace edging. Wow, what a combo! Would this make a cool coffee-cup coaster? Or washcloth? Or ...??
Many thanks to irishlacenet for mapping these intriguing patterns!
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Registration just opened for Stitches United, to be held in Hartford, CT, next March.
Space is still available in all my classes – even Patterned Brioche, which usually sells out in a hurry.
Interested? Sign up now.
And registration is just about to open for DFW Fiber Fest, to be held in Irving, TX, in April.
Seriously? I’m going to be teaching a little bit of everything. Take a moment to check out the schedule. Note that registration opens this Saturday, November 2. Early-bird pricing is in effect through January 1, but will the class you want still be available then?
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