We’re all about the blocking at the moment — Excellent Blocking is this month’s featured Confident Knitting technique. This month’s pair of video tutorials creatively use household objects (with the option to use flexible blocking wires) to achieve some really stellar blocking results. Today though, we thought it’d be fun to share a blocking tutorial of a different type from our archives: how to block a square hap!

A hap is the Shetland name for a shawl essentially designed to be worn everyday, rather than a shawl that would have been more intricate and used just for special occasions.

Hap stretchers are, perhaps, at the opposite end of the spectrum for the blocking equipment we’ve been chatting about this month. They’re wooden frames designed specifically for stretching out square or triangular shawls (we’ll share our tutorial for triangle shawls next week). So a specialist item, to be sure, but one that might be worth having if you’re a dedicated shawl knitter. They do an amazing job of evenly stretching out and transforming your lace. They also cut down on drying time pretty dramatically, since you can leave them leaned upright against a wall, allowing air to circulate around both sides of your finished shawl. You’ll find several tutorials online for building one yourself, or you can find them to buy.

So, without further ado, let’s see how to use one. This tutorial was originally published, in slightly longer form, on the blog in January 2017.

USING A BLOCKING FRAME

Having cast off or grafted the final stitches of your hap, weave in all the ends, but do not trim them. As the lace is stretched ends can pop out on the right side of the fabric, so it's best to wait until after blocking to trim them.

Decide on the dimensions you want to block your hap to, and cut a length of strong cotton about 50cm [20in] longer than the perimeter of your hap.

Using the screw knobs at the corners of the frame, set up your blocking frame so that the sides measure a little more than your intended stretched hap dimensions. For square and rectangular haps, this will simply be the same as the outer edges of your hap. My hap frame has slot-in corners to hold the frame at 90°, if yours does too, then fit them so that the frame doesn't keel over.

Take a length of strong cotton (I use 4ply mercerised cotton for this) and starting at a corner, thread it through the points on the edging of the hap. If your edging is intended to be straight, then sew the cotton along the edge weaving up and down every few stitches. Tie the ends of the cotton together in such a way that you can untie and adjust later if needed.

Soak your hap in lukewarm water with a little wool wash, until it is completely wet through. I use Eucalan since it doesn't require rinsing out.

Gently squeeze out as much excess water as possible, taking care not to twist and wring as this may damage the fibres. Place the wet hap on a dry towel and press it to remove as much remaining water as possible. I walk up and down on mine!

Your hap should now be damp, ready to stretch out on the frame. Firstly loop the cotton at the four corners of your square or rectangular hap over the knobs at the corners of the frame.

Then work around the edges of the shawl, looping the cotton thread over the pegs on the frame to divide each edge in half.

Having done that, work around the hap dividing each new section in half. Working in this way ensures that the hap is stretched evenly.

In order to fine tune how the hap is stretched, I then divide the number of peaks in each section between the number of pegs, and work around the edge, hooking the cotton over the remaining pegs with a standard number of peaks between each peg (some adjustment will be needed, unless you're very lucky!). This is just to ensure that you haven't got 3 peaks between pegs at one end, and 7 peaks at the other end of a side. If required you can now tighten your cotton, by untying it at the corner, and retying it more tightly.

Be sure to check that the hap is pulled as close to the corner knobs as possible - it's easy to over-stretch the shawl in this area.

Leave you hap until it's completely dry! Then unhook the cotton from the pegs, untie the ends and pull it out of the hap. If you have any remaining ends, now is the moment to trim them, before putting on your hap and wearing it with pride!

And there you have it: how to block a square or rectangular hap, using a hap stretcher! In this tutorial, I’m blocking my Bridgewater Shawl by Jared Flood and wearing my own design, the East Woodlands Sweater. All photos are by the always incomparable Jesse Wild. Have a hap to block and no chance of using a stretcher? Kat shared how she blocked her Hansel Hap by Gudrun Johnston on the blog back in 2019.

Want more on blocking? Do make sure you check out April’s Confident Knitting video tutorials for blocking 3D lace objects, and you’ll also find a whole heap of lace blocking tutorials in our book Something New to Learn About Lace.