Back on the blogging horse!!!

I was SHOCKED when I saw the date of my last post. Really??? Three-and-a-half years???
Not that I haven't done any crafting, as I've knit, crocheted, spun and sewed lots, but when you combine a move to a cool house with a huge garden, a family, a busy business - something falls by the wayside...
But it is such a shame not to have a place to put my stuff on show, apart from my Ravelry project pages! The desire to restart the blog was ignited by a short message on Facebook, inviting people to join a #sohapalong. A what?
Yup, my reaction exactly! And then I realised that I actually bought a book on Haps when I was on Shetland, had always planned to spin and knit one, but never got around to it. And as I had no projects on the needles (...), I decided to run up the stairs to my stash attic and dive in. Yup, enough brown to use as a base colour, and I decided to go for purples as a contrast... That would work!

The brown was probably a Frisian milk sheep, or something else. No idea... But I hád carded it, so it was good enough to use for a hap. The other colours were (merino) roving, and a lot softer of course, but I was looking forward to see what contrasts in spinning and knitting this would give.

I got off to a flying start and really enjoyed seeing the square grow. Haps can be knit either outside-in or inside-out - the method I chose. You 'simply' increase by starting each row with a yarn-over, and then once you get the number of stitches you want, you start decreasing by combining a yarn-over and double decrease each row.

While knitting, I also started spinning up my contrast colours... See that whitish one? That's baby camel with silk, super shiny! And that gives yet another effect while knitting...  But something was nagging on my brain... it was missing something...

Yes, grey! So back to the attic I went, and there I found some (yet again, carded!) gotland. This was super fun and strange to spin, as it felt different (again) with the longer staple length...

After knitting the inner square, it was time to pick up the loops and start the wave border. I finally got to see the effect of these colours I chose... And I love it!

The final border is knit sideways, at the same time binding off the live stitches of the wave border. I am nearly there, but I have had to get out my spinning wheel several times to spin more brown... So glad I decided on a colour I had so much of! The big reveal will come soon!