hap-nap

Good morning! All’s well here, and the power is still on, though we are thinking of those elsewhere in Scotland who are still feeling the effects of yesterday’s storm. The Colour Compass design I’m going to introduce you to today is a super-straightforward pattern which we have specifically designed to encourage exploration of different shades and shade combinations from your box of yarn. It’s called hap-nap, which is a Scots term for happenstance or chance, but which also references the familiarity of this cowl’s stitch pattern in Shetland knitting.

Sometimes called new shell, or razor shell, this simple openwork motif is usually worked over 10 stitches, its zig-zagging pattern being formed by yarnovers at the edges and double decreases at the centre of each repeat.

It’s a versatile motif of which I’m very fond. Worked in one shade, it makes a lovely fabric that’s both flexible and stable (brilliant for a skirt, for example). But throw another contrasting colour in, and bingo – you have dramatic chevron stripes!

I used a garter stitch variant of this motif (with the double decreases worked as k3togs), in my Electric Village shawl. . . .

. . . while my Tonnach cardigan shows what fun this simple motif becomes when you add a few more shades into the palette.

The variant I used for Tonnach has cdds as the double decreases. The cdd is a decrease that’s perhaps less frequently used in “traditional” Shetland lace knitting, but I find that it really enhances the angles of the zigzags, and the pleasing structural qualities of the chevron-patterned fabric, particularly when that fabric is stockinette.

Tonnach features a palette of 5 shades, worked over a stripe sequence whose rhythms are inspired by those of Shetland scarves and gloves. If you’d like to be overwhelmed by more beautiful variants of this familiar motif, I suggest you pay Wilma Malcolmson a visit at her studio in Cunningsburgh.

Many of you may remember Wilma’s grand-daughter, Terri Laura, from a piece she wrote for our Allover project last year, in which she discusses the use of a super-simple technique of yarn wrapping to create a complex palette. Yarn-wrapping is one method I heartily recommend when developing your palette for the hap-nap cowl, so if you are interested in knitting this pattern, you might like to give Terri’s piece a read.

In the Colour Compass ebook, you are provided with a blank chart, which you can print out and colour in (using felt tips or pencils) in your preferred palette before knitting your hap nap. If you don’t like colouring in, you can try yarn wrapping or one of the other methods I’ve suggested in the book’s choose direction chapter. The idea is to spend some time trying out different techniques of developing new shade sequences, to find a method you trust and like, and to then use this cowl pattern as a small canvas upon which you might take your colour experiments further.

Keeping it simple with a sequence of regular stripes, Maylin, Claire and myself knit many different hap-nap swatches . . .

. . . which evolved into the final Colour Compass cowl pattern, whose basic parameters are set by a 9 shade palette and a sequence of 6 row stripes . . .

. . . this is a straightforward pattern (suitable for a first-time lace knitter), that is specifically designed for playing with small quantities of different shades of yarn. You can take hap-nap in multiple directions . . .

. . . exploring the potential of many different palettes. . .

. . . and most of all, having fun with colour!

We aim to bring some bold colour into the early months of 2024, with our Colour Compass knitalong, which begins in January. If you’d like to join us, as you work on your hap-nap cowl or any other Colour Compass pattern, you’ll find the e-book and yarn box here.