New! A Baker's Dozen of New Patterns!

With the fall shows behind us, Peggy Gaffney has been busy creating a bevy of new dog portrait patterns to add to the collection. The first group is now available to be ordered at the Kanine Knits website. There are many more in the design stage now which will be released soon. 

The first group consists of thirteen popular breeds: American Staffordshire Terrier, Basenji, Bedlington Terrier, Chihuahua, Chinese Crested, Chinese Shar Pei, Smooth Collie, English Toy Spaniel, Italian Greyhound, Papillion, Saluki, Shiba Inu and Tibetan Terrier.  

The beauty of these patterns is that though they come with a sweater in all the men’s and women’s sizes, the charts can be worked into a number of different items such as the pillows in the previous posts.

All these patterns plus more of the 100 plus patterns are available at the Kanine Knits Books & Patterns website. To check out and purchase any of these patterns or one of the other breed designs, simply go to http://www.kanineknits.com/kanine_knits_knitting_patterns.htm.

Christmas Is Coming

Knit A Quick Gift for the Dog Lover on Your List 

 A Puppy Pillow to Rest its Master's Head!

Here is a Pattern to Make the Pillow.

By doing the simple steps below, you can quickly create a pillow which will make an excellent holiday gift or a lovely decoration for your home that shows pride in your dog's breed.

Materials:

• Needles   #8 US or needles to give a gauge of 5 stitches and 6 rows to the inch.
• Yarn    Worsted Weight
• Pillow form     14” x 14”
• Any one of the more than 100 dog breed portrait patterns in the Kanine Knits charted design collection. http://www.kanineknits.com/kanine_knits_knitting_patterns.htm

Directions:

Cast on 70 stitches in Main Color, placing a stitch marker at the center point following stitch 35. Using the chart information for stitches and rows, subtract the number of rows from 84. When you get that number, divide by 2.  The number you get will tell you how many rows you will knit before beginning the chart of the dog and the number of rows you will knit when you’ve finished working the chart.

Hint:

Mark the center point on your chart and then mark every 5^th stitch either side for the number of stitches the chart requires. As you work the plain rows leading up to the beginning of the chart, place stitch markers on your work to either side of your original center stitch marker to correspond with the chart. When the knitting is complete, simply tuck in all the loose ends neatly on the back of your work.  To do this, overcast around the edge of each color with a yarn needle.

Finishing:

The back of the pillow can be either knit using the same 70 stitches and 84 rows, or if you are in a hurry, simply back with fabric sewn on three sides, the pillow inserted, and then sewn together on the fourth side.

Enjoy the Holidays!

Booth 725 at Stitches East - Welcome!

Booth 725 Stitches East

Join Peggy Gaffney & her friends from CIABA

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at Stitches East from Oct. 20 - 23. It is going to be the biggest and best ever. I will have more than 30 NEW PATTERNS that will be launched at the show. I am really looking forward to working with the wonderful people from the Cottage Industry Alpaca Breeders Association who will have their beautiful natural American bred alpaca yarn. Visit them and support the American farmer. 

I will be signing my books in the booth each day and have also been invited to give a demonstration on how I do this kind of intarsia knitting. I hope all of you will come and say hi. There will be lots to do and so everyone join in the festivities. See you soon. 

Peggy Gaffney Speaks about Facebook in Mystic.

Come hear me speak in Eastern Connecticut. Just grab a bite at Mystic Pizza and then wander over to the firehouse to hear me speak about marketing using Facebook and its 700 million members. The details are in the article below.

SECAPA to host author Peggy Gaffney - THE MYSTIC RIVER PRESS: News

CHRISTMAS IN JULY
at
Kanine Knits

            While I am madly working on a proposal for my newest book that will include both cats and dogs and lots of them, I decided that I would give all my loyal knitter fans a thank you gift for the encouragement you’ve given me in creating the books and patterns down through the years.
            So, I decided to have my first CHRISTMAS IN JULY sale at my website http://www.kanineknits.com. As a thank you, all of you will get 15% off any book or pattern you order for the rest of July. This is a great way to save money (something we all need to do) and to get a head start on your Christmas knitting. It may be hot out, but the colder weather will soon be upon us and you will be ready.
            To get this discount, just go to the shopping area and choose the books or patterns you want. When you get to the checkout, it will ask you to fill in the coupon code. The code for this sale is XMASJULY. Just type that in and the cart should automatically take the discount off as you check out.
            Don’t delay, since the offer is only good till the end of the month.
            I will have new patterns and books coming out, but till then, enjoy shopping and get knitting all those lovely thing for the dog, cat, llama and alpaca lovers in our lives.

Peggy

Have You Ever Been Kissed By An Alpaca?

Here I am arriving at the MAPACA Jubilee and being given the perfect welcome. The show begins tomorrow and I'll tell you, put 1,000 alpaca together in one place and you have a snuggle-fest. They are sooooooo cute. Tomorrow morning beginning at 9:00 am I will be teaching knitting and autographing my book The Crafty Llama and Alpaca Knits. I hope everyone in the Harrisburg area comes by to visit these wonderful animals and, of course, stop by and say hello to me.

I'm Off To Play With Alpacas

Tomorrow I start my journey to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to speak, teach, and autograph my books at the MAPACA Jubilee. This is the shows 15th year and it will be a ton of fun.

The Mid-Atlantic Alpaca Association includes farms up and down the east coast. The very early ancestor of the Camelids, which includes llamas, alpacas, vicunas and guanacos as well as the camel and dromedary developed in the Great Plains of America but then some traveled across the land bridge to Asia and Africa and some wandered south through Central America to settle in the mountainous regions of South America.

However, they began returning to North America beginning with the efforts of famous newspaper mogul William Randolf Hurst who brought some in to his California estate. In recent years, the popularity of these wonderful animals grew from the level of novelty to wonderful provider of fleece that could be knit into luxury clothing. There is a movement on among the thousands of alpaca farms across North America to get serious about marketing the more than 20,000 pounds of fleece as a group to encourage Americans knitters as well as the garment industry in the US to Buy American. 

The yarn is a "green" product in that it doesn't require a great deal of energy to get it. The animals are shorn every spring to protect them from the heat of summer and will grow a new full coat by the next spring. Since they come in over 20 natural colors, dying is not necessary to knit a wonderfully colorful garment. There is very little oil in the fleece so it doesn't have to be treated by harsh chemicals. But the biggest benefit for knitters (where my interest lies) is that the hairs in the fleece are so fine that the resulting yarn is incredibly soft. 

And so, I shall wend my way south tomorrow to spend a long weekend reveling in fleece, yarn and the excitement of this wonderful show.  I hope to see you all there.

Those of you who are on Linkedin, might want to visit the Kanine Knits new business page and build a connection so that we can work together to create pet portraits you'll love. The more ways that I can learn which dogs you want designed and how you like the Kanine Knits designs that you are working on the better. Spring is here and so take your knitting outside and knit in the sunshine!!!

Join the Discussion!

Maybe my blog readers could help me decide which breed I should do for my next book. This is the first time I've come to the end of a book and not had another one in the works (except for the children's book I'm writing) and I can't seem to decide which should be next. If you click the link you will go to my Kanine Knits Books and Patterns Facebook discussion page http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=17590&post=114773&uid=187193941325#post114773

Then you can give me your opinion of what book or books you'd like to see coming out soon. Let me know what you think!

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day With My Irish Pal

This day always makes me wish I could spend more time with my dear friend Rachel Gaffney (no relation). She hails from Cork and has brought Ireland to the US with her wonderful business Rachel Gaffney's Real Ireland. Now, for all you who crave beautiful hand crafted items, and you probably wouldn't be here if you didn't, I should tell you that this year Rachel is working to bring gorgeous crafts and jewelry "from the ol' sod" and make it available here in the US. I hope you will click this link http://www.tiny9.com/u/@Rachel_Gaffney as Rachel celebrates 2011 as the year of the Craft.

Irish Wolfhound

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of the day, I thought that it would be appropriate to visit the Irish members of the design collection here at Kanine Knits. These wonderful dogs have been a vital part of Ireland's history down through the years, vital to the hunt and serving as wonderful companions. 

Irish Water Spaniel

Irish Setter

Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier

 

Real Men Knit Trailer

I 

Peggy talks with Martha Stewart about her latest book during a photo shoot.

 Rachel Gaffney of "Rachel Gaffney's Real Ireland" and Peggy Gaffney of Kanine Knits

I am just back from The Big Apple and a wonderful week of learning and socializing with Martha Stewart and eighty dynamic entrepreneurs who are part of Dreamers into Doers   If you want to see a video showing highlights of the event click the link.

The sessions were taught by dynamic experts in their fields, and I got a chance to talk to Martha and others about the new book, The Crafty Llama and Alpaca Knits. Above I'm wearing a sweater I did to show off the beauty of alpaca yarns in its natural colors. In spite of the cold icy rain that ruled the first day, the spirit of these ladies could not be dampened.

Now I'm back to create more books and designs plus some teaching products that will be coming out this year, but more on that later and on some speaking events that will be coming up this spring.