This asymmetrical, modular, garter-stitch shawl pattern is

My daughter brought me a commercially-made sweater she found in a vintage shop. The sweater was not hand-knit, so there’d be no pattern. She knew she was buying it for me to sort out how it was constructed—knowing that this is my very favourite thing to do!

In my family, a grandmother’s name is Honey. And in my family, it’s Honey’s job to make the Christmas stockings! So here are mine—knit for my three-year-old granddaughters. The colors (7 in all) are seasonal, the bobbles add a little Christmas bling, and the hearts say “The person who made this loves you.”

This is one of my favorite sweaters. So easy to knit and to wear! But what you see is not what was planned, and it’s one of my favorite knitting stories.

I have a problem with rectangular and with triangular scarves: too many wraps in the former, too short tails in the latter. But these geometrical shapes are amenable to lace stitch patterns, so I’ve made lots of lace triangles and lace rectangles … and had them do nothing more than decorate my closet.

This garment is the best of both worlds—knitting plus fabric in which both get to do what they do best and most easily: the smaller pieces are shaped and knit to fit; the larger pieces are just fabric rectangles that provide the “yardage.”