The shortest path between two points is a straight line … but that doesn’t mean it’s the most fun! Zigzagging mosaics interspersed with simple garter stitch draw the eye from one color to the next in this easy mosaic knit design.

Daisies always make me think of my Grandy, who enjoyed growing, decorating with, and painting pictures of the iconic flower. I also have a very clear memory of hearing Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two) with my Grandmom. This daisy covered cowl is a celebration of these two wonderful women.

Playing with colors is one of my favorite things. Sometimes, a color that’s not usually a favorite is exactly what is needed to make a combination sing. Other times, as with this shawl, a gradient set that flows nicely into each other are made that bit more fun and interesting when the colors intermingle in the stitches.

Early last year I read a book on the importance of native plants to an ecosystem, and since then I’ve been diligently working to plant a wide variety of natives in my yard. I’ve noticed an amazing increase in the number of birds, insects, and butterflies spending time around my home since starting this project, and I am now fully committed to t...

Sometimes, you see a skein of yarn and you need it. You don’t have plans; it just really wants to come home with you–it floats your boat. When I saw this lovely colorway of Feederbrook Farms Entropy I knew I wanted to make something with it and paired it with a solid colorway of Killington to make it stand out.

Variegated yarns are so gorgeous, but they can be hard to use in stranded colorwork. Often what looks lovely in the skein ends up rather muddy when knit with a second color in a stranded pattern.

The shapes water naturally freezes in as it meets a windowpane or pushes up through clay are both beautiful and fascinating: spiky edges combine into gorgeous swirling patterns. Frostblossom is the perfect cowl for keeping you warm while admiring the beauty winter has to offer! The cowl starts and ends with stockinette facings–turning these und...

I often listen to podcasts as I knit, and my absolute favorite is No Such Thing as a Fish. With a fabulous blend of facts and humor, the podcast is like listening in to a conversation between your most intelligent friends. One of the many things I learned listening to the podcast is about the mycorrhizal network of fungi that connect plants, he...

From time to time we all need a little pick-me-up or something special to brighten our day. My favorite thing to do when I’m feeling down is to pick up one of my favorite yarns and enjoy feeling it running through my fingers as I knit. Once you have finished your shawl you can then enjoy wrapping yourself in the treat for years to come!

As I was knitting this shawl, a friend mentioned it looked like a feather. My mind immediately came up with a line from a song in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella: “On the wings of my fancy I can fly anywhere, and the world will open its arms to me.” The song stayed in my head the rest of the time I was knitting, and I couldn’t resist borro...

When I have a decision to make and need to think something through, I reach for my knitting. I need something relatively simple, like this lace pattern, so that my hands can work the stitches but my brain can wander, pondering pros and cons of different options. After thousands of stitches I come to a decision–and end up with a lovely scarf to ...

Everyone in my family loves puzzles and games. When we gather together to play the newest board game or assemble a puzzle, I always bring my knitting along, too. The mosaic pattern on this shawl is reminiscent of interlocking puzzle pieces or the pawn pieces sometimes used in board games. The intermingling of the gradient and main colors throug...

The cables on this hat scramble towards the top like hikers up a mountain. The columns make me think of the Dorr Mountain Ladder Trail in Acadia, which has several ladders along sheer areas to help you summit the mountain.

Unlike most of the hats I’ve knit, this one starts at the top–and it’s reversible! As I was knitting, I was reminded of the Topsy Turvy dolls I had as a child, with Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother on either side of a ginormous skirt. I never quite understood the dolls: since the two characters can never interact with each other they didn’t s...

As I was designing this cowl, I was thinking about why we knit, which brought to mind my favorite William Morris quote, “Have nothing in your house which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” To me, this quote, along with Morris’ mindset of elevating everyday items to art through lovely, nature-inspired designs, is an excell...

Garter stitch stripes bring to mind traditional nautical jumpers–mix these with lace patterns depicting tiny waves and seafoam and this shawl is definitely putting out beach vibes!

Knitting lends itself well to metaphors. From the slow progress of individual stitches joining together into a beautiful, large piece of fabric to the subsequent rows building up and depending on the rows before, the act of knitting is comparable to many incremental tasks. The physical manifestation of love each project represents can also be a...

When it’s not quite cold enough for a hat, but your ears could use an extra layer, headbands are the perfect solution. My sister and her wife recently moved to Canada, so I figured they could each use a headband. This pattern of mirrored cabled clusters divided by a zigzagging line reminds me of our family, currently split by a border but still...

The small sections of tiles used as a backsplash are one of my favorite things to see when I visit kitchens. I love all different kinds of tiles: hand crafted with flowers or animals, iridescent ones, and the gorgeous geometric blue design my friend picked for her newly remodeled kitchen.

My sister moved to Canada in March 2020. She and her wife had been planning the move for over a year and expected it to be a difficult transition, but no one expected what happened. I wanted to send an extra special gift so that she would know how much she is loved, even if we do have to express our love over a long distance at the moment.

As I was designing this sweater, the pattern reminded me of pineapples, a traditional symbol of welcome and hospitality. Knitting has always been a friend to me. The act itself provides comfort, excitement, relaxation, or whatever else I’ve been in the mood for depending on the project. I’ve also made many of my best friends through knitting, s...

With all that is going on in the world, sometimes I just need a project that is as comforting as Good Night Moon. When I was a little girl my parents would read this to me before bed, quietly and slowly, almost a lullaby. Even then, the old woman whispering “hush,” knitting in her rocking chair, was my favorite image in the book. This shawl is ...

I’ve always loved fairy tales, folk tales, and traditional stories from around the world. In many of these stories the number three plays a big role — the third son goes off to be heroic, it is the third prince who wins the hand of the princess, the third daughter is the one who produces diamonds and roses when she speaks. When my cousin announ...

Nature is beautiful in all its parts, but sometimes when looking at the majesty of a redwood forest or the vastness of the ocean it is easy to miss smaller details. The rest of my family love spending time hiking and doing other outdoors-y things when we go on vacation, so I often spend an hour or two sitting and knitting under a tree waiting f...

This hat was designed for my future sister in law, Lucy. Lucy is a neuroscientist who works with crayfish, and to be honest I don’t really understand much about what she does, except that somehow crayfish are very good at showing how brains work. There weren’t any patterns that looked much like crayfish in any of my stitch dictionaries (at leas...

For some reason, this hat makes me think of the song “We Got Elegance” from Hello Dolly:

The strong lines contrasting with the delicate lace in this pattern reminded me of my older sister. Since she has just moved from San Francisco to Pittsburgh she needs to build up her winter wardrobe, so I decided a cowl would be a nice addition to her closet.

Yummy 3-ply is my not-so-secretly favorite of our bases. When we decided to knit hats for the fall in a variety of yarns, I immediately claimed Yummy 3-ply, and picked a skein in my favorite color family, rich oranges.

Jen’s husband wanted a cowl, and this is the quick knit cowl she designed!

This pattern was designed for the 2013 Miss Babs Armchair Traveler Knitting Tour’s June trip to the Galapagos, and is now generally available!

A relatively simple cowl knit for my sister Marie, using one skein of the luscious Sojourn. This pattern is visually interesting, and would work well in both solids and Babettes.

Now available as a Ravelry download!