A letter from Stella · Co-founder of Stella & Grace
Camden, Maine · October 2026
A letter from the founderThirty-Five Years of Keeping Women Warm — Without Making Them Disappear.
Thirty-seven pieces on the shelf — sweaters, cardigans, hoodies. All knit to the same rules: pattern worked into the yarn, color chosen for women the catalog forgot, built so you will reach for them again in three winters.
My sister Grace and I opened Stella & Grace in 1991, on a street in Camden where the snow starts early and does not think about leaving until April. We had one rule then, and it has not changed since: warm should never mean shapeless. The Winter Art Pieces are where we say that out loud — not just warm, not just the right cut, but colorful enough that a woman catches herself in a window and smiles.
Here is the quiet trade an entire industry asks of women past a certain age, every October. Warm, or seen. Pick one. The thick thing that holds the cold out comes in oatmeal, gray, and something the catalog calls "heather." The pretty thing goes see-through by Thanksgiving. Somewhere in the middle, a whole world of clothing that nobody has bothered to make.
The Winter Art Pieces are the answer we have been building for thirty-five winters. Thirty-seven of them. Sweaters that read as paintings. Cardigans with yokes you could frame. Hoodies that do not look like something borrowed off a nineteen-year-old. All of it knit the old way — pattern worked into the yarn, not printed on the surface — so the colors are still the colors three winters from now.
That is why, of everything on our shelves this October, the Winter Art Pieces are the collection I would put in your hands first. There are six things I would tell you about them, in the order I would point them out.
Real color, not a wall of gray.
There is an enormous distance between "cheerful" and "trying to look twenty-five," and almost nobody designs in that gap. We live in it. Deep moss, blackberry, dusk blue, saffron, winter plum. Colors chosen specifically to look right on a woman catching the morning light in her own kitchen — not on a model under a studio light. A green sweater is not a costume, lavender is not a cry for help, and oatmeal is not the only safe choice past fifty.
"The green one. It is the color I always wanted and never found. Three women in the grocery line asked me where it was from."
JW★★★★★"The green one. It is the color I always wanted and never found. Three women in the grocery line asked me where it was from."
Janet W., Columbus, OH Verified buyer
Pattern knitted into the yarn, not printed on top.
This is the whole reason "statement sweaters" sold for forty dollars crack and fade after one winter. The pattern was printed on. Ours are built pattern-first: the colorwork is the yarn itself, charted stitch by stitch, so there is nothing to peel, nothing to wash away, nothing that looks tired by January. The pattern on the yoke of your sweater next October is the same pattern it was the day it arrived.
"The pattern is as crisp this winter as it was two Octobers ago. Nothing has faded, nothing has cracked. I do not know how they do that."
PH★★★★★"The pattern is as crisp this winter as it was two Octobers ago. Nothing has faded, nothing has cracked. I do not know how they do that."
Patricia H., Boise, ID Verified buyer
Real wool that stays warm in a hallway and breathes in a kitchen.
A brushed wool blend, knit densely enough to stand on a porch in the wind. Acrylic feels warm in a heated shop and turns clammy on the walk to the car, because it has nowhere to put the moisture. Wool moves it. That is the whole trick. Warm enough for a cold hallway at seven in the morning, light enough that you are not carrying it around all evening.
"Warm without being stifling. I wore it in the kitchen all day and never once had to take it off because I was too hot."
EM★★★★★"Warm without being stifling. I wore it in the kitchen all day and never once had to take it off because I was too hot."
Eileen M., Asheville, NC Verified buyer
Finished edges on everything that touches your wrists.
Cuffs knitted in, not cut and hemmed, so there is no raw edge to fray and nothing to unravel at the wrist. On a sweater this matters because it gets pushed up your forearms twenty times a day. On a cardigan it matters because that is the first place a cheap knit gives up. On a hoodie it matters because that is where everyone looks when you reach for a mug.
"The sleeves hold their shape after a full winter of being pushed up every evening. I have never had that before."
LT★★★★★"The sleeves hold their shape after a full winter of being pushed up every evening. I have never had that before."
Lorraine T., Scranton, PA Verified buyer
Three silhouettes, same quality. Sweater, cardigan, hoodie.
Not every woman wants the same thing on a Tuesday morning. The sweater is for the days you want one decision and done. The cardigan is for the days you'll change your mind about temperature four times before dinner. The hoodie is for the walk, the porch, the grandchild asleep on your shoulder. All three use the same wool, the same colorwork, the same shoulder construction. You are not getting a less-good version if you pick the hoodie.
"I bought the hoodie first, loved it, then the cardigan, then the sweater. Same quality, three completely different looks."
DS★★★★★"I bought the hoodie first, loved it, then the cardigan, then the sweater. Same quality, three completely different looks."
Donna S., Bangor, ME Verified buyer
Thirty-seven patterns, S through 5XL, one price.
Not seven patterns in five sizes. Thirty-seven, each with its own yoke, each chart re-worked for every size so the colorwork actually lands where it should across the chest. Nothing costs more at 3XL than it does at Small, and nothing stops at XL with an apology. If you have been shopping in the plus section of other stores and quietly accepting what was left over, these are built for you the same way they are built for everyone else.
"I ordered the 4XL expecting the usual sack. It is cut like the small one, just bigger. I ordered a second in another pattern."
RG★★★★★"I ordered the 4XL expecting the usual sack. It is cut like the small one, just bigger. I ordered a second in another pattern."
Rhonda G., Tulsa, OK Verified buyer
Our Winter Art Pieces, against the "statement sweaters" you have been buying
You can find a "statement sweater" for sixty dollars almost anywhere, and most women I know have two of them in a drawer that they never actually wear. I have bought a great many of them myself over the years, to see what we were up against. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
- Pattern printed on top, cracks by January
- Acrylic, sold to you as wool
- Color goes dull after two washes
- Grows hanger shoulders in a month
- Cuffs stretch and never come back
- Stops at XL, then an apology
- Pattern knit into the yarn, structural
- Real wool knit that holds the heat in
- Color stays color, winter after winter
- Keeps its shape hanging by the door
- Deep ribbing that still grips next winter
- Thirty-seven patterns, S through 5XL
A piece of clothing is "art" if someone is still reaching for it, and still being seen in it, three winters later. Not if the picture on the front is loud. Not if the catalog said so.
Why the Winter Art Pieces are 70% OFF this month
This month Stella & Grace turns thirty-five. Same street, same two sisters, same table in the back room where we still wrap every parcel by hand.
To mark it we did something we have never done: we put the whole Winter Art Pieces shelf — all thirty-seven of them, every sweater, every cardigan, every hoodie — on one anniversary run at close to what they cost us to knit. One run. Not a season, not a rolling sale.
When a pattern sells out of your size, that is the end of that one. The pieces go back to $144.00, and the anniversary does not come round again.
Stacked discounts apply automatically at checkout and can be combined across collections. At four pieces that is $46.40 each. We make almost nothing at that price, and that is on purpose.
CR★★★★★"Two pieces on my porch in three days, wrapped in tissue with a note written by hand. I have never had a parcel from anywhere arrive looking like that."
Carol R., Sarasota, FL Verified buyer
The Winter Art Pieces are the collection I am asked about most, and the ones I wear most. I would far rather they went to women who will live in them than sit folded on a shelf at the back of my shop.
Stella · Co-founder, Stella & GraceThe reviews say the same things I do, over and over. 4.8 stars across more than 1,450 women. If you are going to add one piece to your closet before the clocks change — one piece that still gets reached for in three winters — this is where I would start, while the sizes are still there.
— Stella
The Stella & Grace Winter Art Pieces
- Real color — moss, blackberry, saffron, winter plum, dusk blue
- Pattern knit into the yarn, not printed on, so it lasts
- Sweater, cardigan or hoodie — same quality, three silhouettes
- Free shipping & 30 day money back guarantee
Stack and save: buy 2 save 10%, buy more and save up to 20% extra.
See which pieces are still in your size