Just as tart fruits, sweet candy, or peppery spices add a small delight to your plate, these patterns are meant to add small delights to your knitting!

If you aren’t familiar with this project already, please be aware: this collection of patterns is not going to create tidy finished objects or functional stitch patterns.

I love puns… and I also love the members of my local knitting community. Recently, one of us survived a life changing accident. She is moving through it with grace, strength and humour; all proceeds from this pattern will go to help modify her reality to accommodate her new needs. This pattern has been inspired by Clair – she prefers rectangles...

Even if you haven’t seen Jayne on Firefly, you can appreciate a man wearing a hat his mom made him. I spied a kit of mini skeins in the same colours as Jayne’s hat, and voila, inspiration! The lace and beads may be more feminine than the typical space-faring mercenary, but I love it. You can use any fingering-weight yarn, and there are instruct...

Last year, I let go of my long-time companion Suki. He was a good cat, who spent many hours purring companionably next to me. The last thirteen years and the initial version of this shawl were worked under his close supervision, and every time I wear this I think of him. I loved him as well as I could, as long as I could.

This pattern softens the colors of highly variegated yarns, just as dappled sunlight softens the brightness of a garden. An interesting but not overly complex knit, it’s compelling to watch the colors combine and recombine in the doubled yarn-overs.

The Adriatic Sea can be as varied as the countries that border it. Sometimes it’s warm and calm; sometimes it’s cold with white capped waves. This cowl was inspired by the changeable Adriatic, and it is beautiful whether you use a monochromatic yarn, a semisolid, or a dizzying variegated hand-dye. Wear it long over a light dress for a late nigh...

A call for literary-themed submissions from Sanguine Gryphon combined with the idea of Mrs Whatsit (an angel disguised as a tramp in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time) to inspire this shawl. Mrs Whatsit doesn’t use difficult stitches, but it does require a fair amount of focus and an ability to read your knitting. First published in 2011, t...

Kalmer (pronounced CALL-mer) is ideal to showcase yarns that are highly variegated, limited in yardage, or both. Shown in luxurious cashmere worsted, this shawl can be worked to any size and will shine with any yarn weight and fiber. The firm, non-rolling linen stitch and carefully thought-out bind-off result in a very balanced, knitted materia...

A moonraker is a sail; Moonraker is also the name of a classic James Bond movie. I used my super-spy skills to create a variant of my Spinnaker Capelet; it’s now fully reversible and still sparkles with beads. The stockinette and reverse stockinette move along intuitively, and they fold and crease wonderfully when worn. Two sizes offer you the ...

Macro lace and super bulky yarn combine for the perfect accessory to ease into winter. I’ve borrowed part of the species name of the big-leaf maple (acer macrophyllum) to reflect the leaves of the edge. This shawl won’t be as large as the tree, but it knits up quickly and it’ll keep you warm even while it’s a work in progress.

This pattern is both fully written and fully charted; I’ve included a schematic as well. The lace pattern reminds me of a spinnaker sail, ballooned full of air. This garment is an ideal combination of cowl and cape; it covers your shoulders and upper arms and stays put while you move. .

I’m a nerd… it’s not really a secret. I also have soft spots for terrible puns, color, and interesting math concepts. These have come together in a Fibonacci-inspired crescent shawl, where the colors march along in a compelling 13-8-5-3-2-1 sequence. There is no short row shaping, and the versatile shape can be worn as a shawl, a cache-coeur wr...

Part of Small Delights, Praline is available for individual download or as part of an e-book for $10.00.

Part of Small Delights, Praline is available for individual download or as part of a book, for $10.00.

Part of Small Delights, Praline is available for individual download or as part of an ebook for $10.00.

I read the Hobbit as a child, and I clearly remember the cover illustration. Smaug (the dragon) was coiled about his gold and he had one eye slitted open. This shawl is inspired by that image – the cabled stitches form both stacks of coins and represent that narrowed eye. They transition into scales, and the edges and overall shape represent hi...

These three bags were inspired by the reality and myth of the ocean. The two largest bags are pictorial stranded colorwork, and more challenging. The smallest bag is a more traditional fair-isle pattern, freshened up by a staggered arrangement. All three are backed with a repeating seahorse motif. The seahorse and crab patterns could be expande...

There’s a support thread for this shawl, being hosted by Earthfaire - pop over if you have any questions!

I think of this shawl as the big sister to Escalope – it uses five eighths of an octagon and a geometric leaf lace pattern to create a shawl that can be worn as a lovely small cape or a generous shawl or scarf that stays put due to its shaping. I finished knitting the original in Italy; “Ottavia” is a common Italian name and also means “eighth”.

For a trip I was planning, I wanted a triangular shawl that was slightly more generous in its angles and had very little openwork. The original was knit at a very dense gauge using sport weight yarn (to meet my ‘travel tough’ needs). This pattern offers versions in fingering and heavy laceweight that are a similar finished size, but knit at mor...

L’Infinita - Infinity - is just what the name implies: a continuous loop with endless possibilities. Wear it long or loop it around your neck or ears as much as you like. The pattern can also be repeated “to infinity” to make it as deep as desired.

Zigmund is an open-fronted sweater with a generous, flattering collar. The body is worked in the round in Fair-Isle style stranded colorwork. The front and sleeves are then steeked, the shoulders seamed, and both sleeves and collar are picked up and worked out from the body.

This shawl was the third installment of the Calgary-centric Tapas Yarn Club and is now available for purchase!

This is the newly reformatted Eclat du Jour. It is a pattern for three fair isle knitted bags. There are three charted motifs – Thistle (a nod to Charles Rennie Mackintosh), Bee, and Pomegranate. Each bag can be worked in any of the motifs, and there are directions for optional handle reinforcement and lining. It was originally part of Sanguine...

please note updated yardage - I have not re-knit this but have received feedback from knitters. To avoid frustration, perhaps have an extra skein to hand.

This small shawl is worked from the ribbed hem inward. The ribbing continues through the center spine as the lace mesh angles in on each side. The shawl’s unusual shape is due to a dramatic rate of decrease, and it can be worked at the same gauge in either fingering or sport weight yarn. The fingering weight shawl is softer with more drape, whi...

A gorgeous skein of super bulky yarn leapt into my hands the other day. With a little tweaking, the Mishka Scarf has become the Mishka Cowl!

This scarf can be knit in any weight, and is a beautiful showcase for brilliantly colored yarns. Although it may look like a drop stitch, the ‘ladders’ are formed by double YO’s, and they elegantly contrast with the vertical striping that the yarn provides.

This hat is based on a traditional Shetland lace pattern known as razor shell. It’s sharp no matter what style of sock yarn you use; semi-solid, space-dyed, or hand painted. There are four sizes (in effect) that range from smallest to largest as follows: small, unblocked; large, unblocked; small, blocked; large, blocked.

Lilacken is a small shawl that makes the most of your luxury handpainted or variegated yarns, and features the same stitch pattern as my larger “Mistaken Shawl”. You can chose which weight of yarn you want, whether you want to work from charts or written instructions, and once you’ve cast off, whether or not to block your shawl. When unblocked,...

This shawl is based on a “mistake rib” that my grandmother showed me years ago. It is essentially reversible, with the satisfaction of three knits for every purl in the body. I’ve never found it as such in a stitch dictionary; whether it’s my mistake or hers, it’s a pleasure to knit.

This is an easy, beautiful hat knit in the round from the crown to the brim. It uses one skein of Noro Silk Garden Light, and alternates panels of stockinette with reverse stockinette. There are three options for the depth, ranging from beanie-ish to slouchy. If you skip the purling, you get an even simpler, smooth textured hat. It’s named afte...

This is an easy scarf designed to make the most of one of my special hand-dyed yarns. Most garter stitch scarves are rectangular, and they tend to stretch and develop a “tongue” shape that bothers me. This is the solution! The points hang beautifully, and the bias wraps lovingly around your neck to keep you toasty warm. (Incidentally, I admit I...

Another installment in the quest for the perfect head covering, this one inspired by the Northern Lights dancing over the Prairies. It’s knit in the round from the crown out to the brim, and you may be able to squeak by with one ball of Noro’s scintillating Aurora. A fantastic quickie project or gift, it’s hypnotizing to watch the sparkling yar...