The inspiration for Joe’s Garden comes from my second cousin, Marion Cafferky, and her husband Joe. A retired plumber, Joe is a master rose gardener-- he and Marion have won awards for their amazing roses. Joe has a tree trunk in front of his house that has been elegantly carved and painted into a rose. He adores roses, and when I asked Marion how I, with my pathetic brown thumb, could have roses as beautiful as his, she said “Have Joe grow them-- he’s amazing.”

I got to know Marion a little better last year when she served as the executor to my grandmother’s estate in Massachusetts. She is a great lady-- tough, a serious Boston Red Sox fan, and married and loyal to the same man for over 50 years. Marion is in the process of helping Joe battle brain cancer-- a battle which, sadly, he may not win. When I was there last year, in July and August, the height of the rose season, it was clear from the weeds and overgrowth that The Gardener was not home.

I started designing Joe’s Garden last year as a gift for Marion to thank her for her help with the estate, and to honor her husband. A portion of every pattern purchase will be donated to the American Cancer Society, and the shawl I knit during the KAL will be sold, with 100% of the proceeds donated to the fight against cancer. If you’d like to make a straight-out donation to fight cancer, please do so right here.

Thanks for your donation, and for your participation in the KAL.