Stories
Every stitch has a story.
Some begin with joy.
Some begin with grief.
Some celebrate a wedding.
Some welcome a new baby.
Some become treasured family traditions.
And some quietly remind us that the things we make often say the words our hearts cannot.
These are the stories behind the stitches—the people, the moments, and the memories that have shaped both my life and my knitting.
Thank you for spending a little time with me.
I hope you'll find a piece of your own story here, too.
— Kimberly
Love Letters In Lace
A Story About the Shawls I Knit for the McAlindin Lasses
When my niece Meg sat down to open her bridal shower gift, she thought she was opening a handmade shawl.
She was. But she was also receiving something I hope she'll carry with her for the rest of her life.
Years ago, I knit a shawl for one of the McAlindin lasses as she began a new chapter of her life. Then another. And then another.
Without ever planning it, these shawls became my love letters in lace.
People often assume they're bridal shawls. They're not. The wedding simply happens to be the moment they're given. In fact, not one of my nieces has worn her shawl on her wedding day.
That was never the point.
The point has always been much simpler... and much more important.
Every McAlindin lass who receives one is beginning a new chapter of her life. She may take a new last name, build a new home, and create traditions of her own. My hope is that, wherever her life takes her, she'll always have something tangible to wrap around her shoulders - a gentle reminder of where she came from.
Every stitch carries my hopes for her happiness, my prayers for the life she's building, and the quiet joy I felt while making something just for her.
That, more than the lace itself, is what I hope she feels when she looks at her shawl.
Meg's shawl began long before I cast on the first stitch.
When she became engaged at a vineyard in Italy, I knew I wanted to weave that milestone into her shawl. The center panel is worked in a traditional Shetland lace motif, bordered by vine lace, and I finished with the beautiful Print o' the Wave edging - a quiet nod to the ocean that has carried families, stories, and journeys for generations.
Over nearly 150 hours, one stitch slowly became another until the shawl was complete.
But if I'm honest...
The knitting was never really the gift.
The gift was knowing that, long after I bound off the last stitch, a little piece of my love would continue to travel with her.
I hope that years from now, when Meg unfolds her shawl, she won't simply remember the day she received it.
I hope she'll remember the family who loved her first.
And that somewhere, wrapped inside the lace...
...there will alwlays be a hug from Aunt Kimberly.
That's why I'll keep knitting these shawls.
Because sometimes the most important thing we can leave the people we love is the certainty that they have always been, and always will be, so deeply loved.