These quick and easy socks employ the same Waving Rib as my Willingdon cardigan. The garter stitch heel is worked over 60% of the sock stitches, rather than the usual 50%, for a good fit over the instep. The toe is cinched instead of grafted. Takes less than 2 50g balls.

Willingdon is constructed bottom-up and seamlessly with an easy, no-sew, no-graft method of underarm closure (link to tutorial included). A wide shawl collar, shaped with German short rows, frames the face. The stitch pattern is simple to memorize, and the wool is soft, chunky, and drapey. Both the knitting and wearing are soothing.

Hedgewood features bottom-up, seamless construction, a deeply cabled “skirt” and cuffs, a wide, slightly squared neckline, and an easy, no-sew, no-graft method of closing the underarm gaps (link to photo tutorial included).

Let’s face it, Canada is a cold place to live for much of the year. We need all the woolly help we can get. This oversized, almost knee-length coat is here to the rescue! Wear it indoors or out, in the city on your way to work, or in the country for spring or fall walks. The deep back pleat and wide collar give the coat a flattering silhouette....

This little square-necked cardi brings together elements from Scandinavian and Fair Isle traditions. Since only the front opening is steeked, the pattern is suitable for knitters wanting to have a first try at that technique. I wanted to avoid classic picot hems as they can be fussy to work, but discovered that the usual instructions for picot ...

Six years ago, my son, James, asked for a scarf for his New Year’s Day birthday. I wanted to knit him a simple yet handsome scarf and, after sorting through my stash for suitable colours, I came up with this one, which he still wears most winter days. The instructions barely merit writing down, but because knitters keep asking, here they are…

This easy tam was designed as a first project for students in my stranded knitting classes. The stitch pattern is adapted from the “Snowstar” mitten in Inger and Ingrid Gottfridsson’s delightful little gem, “The Mitten Book”, translated from the Swedish and first published by Lark Books in 1984.

This useful little cardi is a graceful take on the gansey tradition, featuring the Arbroath marriage lines stitch pattern. The construction is a blend of traditional and not-so-traditional methods. The body is knitted from the bottom up, and I chose to steek the front and armhole openings in order to allow the knitting to proceed with the right...

This toque is fun, fast, flattering, and warm. In other words, this hat has it all, and so it’s the one I inevitably reach for when I’m running out the door to walk to the grocer’s, to shovel snow, or to go skating in our market square. The top-down construction gets things off to a rollicking start, and before you know it, this baby is done an...

For his birthday, my son asked for a thick, warm sweater that would help him get through our tough Canadian winters. The challenge? To strike a balance between a sweater that would be interesting enough to keep me knitting, but not so interesting that it would draw attention to itself—the classic problem when knitting for most men. The solution...

I used to own a lot of Cut Loose brand clothing, a line both flattering and comfortable. I wanted to design a chunky knit that would have the same flow—something that would blend with my Cut Loose pieces and be perfect for fall walks along Lake Ontario. As usual with my designs, it was also important that the silhouette appeal to my twenty-some...

The stitch pattern in these socks is a scaled down version of the Cornish “Snake Cable” gansey stitch. I love the way the sinuous vertical cable pops out from the horizontally patterned background, then fades into smooth stocking stitch to allow the sock to fit comfortably inside shoes or clogs. The whole thing turns out to be incredibly simple...

Fingerless gloves have always had an aura of romance for me, conjuring up images of nineteenth-century heroes and heroines in chilly garrets or country houses, but until recently, I avoided wearing them. They seemed impractical—not enough coverage to keep fingers warm on a cold day outside, and unnecessary indoors. Then I moved into an early Vi...

When you consider the fact that I’m not much of a TV or movie fan, it’s remarkable how many of my designs have been inspired by those media. This tam owes its existence to the 1993 version of “The Secret Garden” and actress Kate Maberly’s floppy rust-coloured woolly hat. I loved the way that tam draped down over the collar of her little coat, e...

Sometimes you want a light-as-air something to throw about your neck, not really for warmth, but for pure decoration. Sometimes you want something simple enough to knit without constant reference to a complicated chart, but interesting enough to keep your attention. Thus, this scarf was born. Because every row is an “action” row, you can’t let ...

Frostfern is a top-down, no-sew, easy-to-wear design with a lot of ease (10” or more). It features traditional 4-row Shetland vine lace, sometimes referred to as fern lace. The back shoulders are cast on provisionally, then worked down to the underarms. The front shoulders are then picked up from the back to create a smooth, uninterrupted shoul...

I have made this pattern available again.

These surprisingly quick Outlander-inspired gloves feature:

This elongated triangle/crescent scarf is a surprisingly quick knit. The pattern repeats are easy to memorize, yet deliver a lot of bang for a relatively small effort, with the purl stitches adding unexpected texture. The smaller version in Icelandic wool softens considerably after washing and allows the shaping of crisp points. For a slightly ...

“Wheatsheaves” is a top-down no-sew design with a lot of ease. When worn with a shawl pin, either at the top of the neck or at the bottom of the front border, the slight crossover causes the kimono shape to drape quite attractively. When worn unclosed, the back flares to create a flattering, graceful line. Apart from the provisional cast-on and...

The idea for this hat and mitts set originated in the work of William Morris (1834-1896). As an artist and medievalist who influenced the Arts and Crafts movement and writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien, his textile designs have a lot to offer up as inspiration. I wanted to evoke the dense botanical look of his work in a simplified format, and with ...

During the week between Christmas, 2012 and New Year’s Day, 2013, I spent my spare time viewing the 1987 three-part Lord Peter Wimsey TV mystery series. In the middle episode, “Have His Carcass”, Harriet Vane wears an astonishingly beautiful collection of handknits while she roams the lonely northern coast of Britain. My jacket was designed wi...

Zora is a cousin of my design, “Wakefield”; it has the same feminine silhouette with a gently flared shape and deep shawl collar, only with a double wave cable pattern instead of hearts and bobbles. When I first saw this stitch in Barbara Walker’s Treasury, I was surprised at the extent to which it drew my eye, given that the cables are superim...

Wakefield is a seamless sweater pattern with a knitted-in inset sleeve. The body is worked from the bottom up, the sleeves are knitted from the top down, and the collar is knitted on using short rows. The stitch pattern is given in chart format only. Bobbles may be omitted. I designed Wakefield because I wanted to make a blatantly feminine aran...

This simple scarf/shawlette is not named after a contemporary Italian designer, but rather after a 13th century mathematician, in whose book a particular sequence of numbers appeared for the first time in the West (the origin of the sequence was actually in India). The first two numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are 0 and 1, and each subsequent...

The easy knot stitch on this sock is the same as the one that appears in my Brookline cardigan, published in the Spring/Summer 2012 issue of the online magazine, Twist Collective. Since the knots, which are worked at a tighter gauge than in the sweater, might be uncomfortable inside footwear, I chose to limit the pattern to the part of the foot...

Trellis is a fair isle design suitable for a first venture into knitting a steeked garment. The repeats are easy to memorize, the yarn does most of the colourwork, and since there are no sleeves there is no need to deal with stranded knitting on double-pointed needles.

An easy pattern suitable as a first venture into small diameter fairisle knitting. The cuff may be worked in corrugated ribbing instead of stocking stitch, if desired. A quick project that results in a warm, double-thick fabric.