Kindred Tee

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

~Mary Oliver, excerpt from When I Am Among the Trees

I designed Kindred with this poem in mind. What would I want to wear while wandering through a sun-dappled forest, journal and pen in hand, as Mary Oliver herself often did? What designs and textures could I incorporate that would remind me that—like the rustling leaves on a clear autumn day—I too am filled with light? This sweater is what emerged.