Across the Generations

My friend Diana found a very old, typewritten with penciled notes, missing its second page, well loved pattern for a shawl in her grandmother’s knitting box. It was the original pattern for a traditional Shetland Hap shawl that her grandmother knit several times. The language in the original is out of date, and it calls for a construction that is not in favor in these days of flexible circular needles. Diana asked me to update the shawl so she could knit it herself and share it with the world.

Like a traditional Hap, this shawl starts with a garter stitch square. Stitches are picked up along the sides and knit in a modified feather & fan stitch. This pattern differs from the original in that this section is worked in the round rather than in two flat pieces. Finally, a knit-on border is worked sideways to the feather & fan section to finish off the shawl. A vigorous blocking is essential to bring out the texture and structure of this wrap.