The Kindness Cardi

The Kindness Cardi is a year long knit-a-long where I’ll be releasing new patterns every week. By the end of the year, the panels come together to form a cardigan — a wearable record of ideas, questions, kindnesses and convictions.

What is the Kindness Cardi?

Hello crafters!

My name is Tilley, and each week I'll be designing and releasing a new panel or patch for you to knit in your own time. By the end of the year, the panels come together to form a cardigan — a wearable record of ideas, questions, kindnesses and convictions. I see it as a piece of armer I’ll eventually be able to wear. Something I can be proud of, and wear when I need to be brave.

Some panels will be political. Some environmental. Some spiritual. Some, deeply personal. If you’d like to knit along and create your own cardigan, choose the panels that resonate with you. I expect you won’t want or like all of them, just choose the ones you love and perhaps design some of your own! There is one rule, keep it kind!

This isn’t about knitting perfectly, keeping up, or finishing on schedule. It’s about making with intention, using your hands to think, reflect, protest, pray, process or simply be.

You can join at any point. You can skip weeks. You can knit one panel or all of them.

Blog

Week 8, Riots Not Diets and HI

Week 8 of the Kindness Cardi and I have about as much energy as you’d expect after half term week. Kids at home. Trying to be Fun Mum. Trying to work. Trying to keep all the plates spinning. So this blog is brief. Because that’s all I have in me right now. And I’m choosing to be kind to myself too. This week’s panels: Riots Not Diets Hi Sometimes that’s enough. Being exhausted from life is allowed.

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Week 7, Hug My Heart, Love the Earth and a flock of ducks!

Hello lovely knitters, Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Hearts everywhere, and I wanted to jump on the bandwagon! This week I’m releasing two new Kindness Cardi panels: Hug My Heart Love the Earth Hug My Heart is about connection. The real, arms-wrapped-round-someone, I’ve-got-you kind of love. Love the Earth feels just as urgent. Loving the earth isn’t a slogan. It’s action. It’s harvesting yarn from old jumpers instead of buying new. It’s making something lasting out of what

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Week 6 - mistakes, the cross and scare them

This week’s trio came together around a simple but not-always-easy idea: kindness isn’t passive. Sometimes it comforts. Sometimes it challenges. Sometimes it makes people shift in their seats. Mistakes Make Me A reminder that we are not the polished end product, but the work in progress. Every dropped stitch, every wrong turn, every “well, that didn’t go to plan” moment becomes part of the fabric. Mistakes don’t undo us. They shape us. They add texture, depth, story. This pan

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The legal bit

You are very welcome to:

download and use the patterns for free
knit the panels and make a Kindness Cardi for yourself or as a gift
share photos of your finished work on social media (please tag @kindnesscardi where possible)

Please don’t:

sell the patterns, in whole or in part
redistribute the patterns or templates (online, in print, or by email)
sell finished cardigans or panels made using these patterns without my express permission

This project is rooted in generosity, creativity and kindness, and I trust you’ll help keep it that way. If you’d like to discuss using a pattern in a commercial setting, collaboration, or anything outside of personal use, please DM me through the Kindness Cardi social channels.

Patterns may be updated or withdrawn at any time.