and then visit the website to see them all.
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Portraits of dogs in knitting is what Peggy Gaffney creates with her Kanine Knits Books & Patterns. Author of nine knitting books and more than 100 patterns, she began as a custom knitting designer in 1995 creating her line of Kanine Knits designs. Visit the website http://www.kanineknits.com.
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The Crafty Bernese Mountain Dog Knits has gone to press and will debut at Berner U, part of the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America National Specialty on April 23 where I will be teaching knitting to all those who want to learn how to create these dog portrait designs.
This is the fourth book in the Crafty Dog Knits Series along with those about Samoyeds, Labs and Goldens. It has been a lot of work but made very pleasant by the wonderful participation of a number of Berner breeders especially Linda Seaver who was invaluable in collecting photos of the dogs and giving me the benefit of her experience in the breed and Cindy Forlenzo and her dog Burt who posed for the covers.
Check out the web page dedicated to the book which is available for order at a special pre-publication discount till April 15. Go to the Kanine Knits page about the new book http://www.kanineknits.com/Kanine_Knits_Crafty_Bernese_Mt_Dog_Book.htm and take a look.
I had to say goodbye to my beautiful Samoyed bitch Ria. For a dozen years she has been a constant source of joy, whether in the show ring which was her favorite place or visiting all the children at obedience class.
Ria was special. She made me look so good in the ring. I didn’t have to do anything; she could and did show herself. One judge asked me if I didn’t feel redundant since she was quite capable of winning with no help from anyone. Her signature biscuit ears were always on alert and her movement was flawless. She knew the ring so well that I could have shown .her off lead and not missed a step.
A number of years ago she was injured with a terrible blow to the head from, what we think but couldn’t prove, was a slingshot. She ended up having both her eyes removed. However, nothing changed for her. She stayed the same Ria, beloved by the other dogs and bossing them around. The only difference came when someone tried to stare her down and discovered that didn’t work since she couldn’t see. She would blithely walk up and steal a bone right out of their mouth. Right up to the last, if you said to her “show dog”, she’d trot to a perfect stack in front of you, staring at bait that only she could see and hold the pose till released.
She was my inspiration, my shadow, my loving friend and I will miss her.



Stitches West – Goes to the Dogs! Feb. 21-24, 2008.
Is there a special dog in your life?
Would you love to knit his portrait using his own hair?
Then now is the time to visit VIP at booths 725 & 727 at Stitches West.
Victoria Pettigrew from VIP FIBERS will show you how you can take all the hair that your favorite pooch is shedding all over the house, get it spun into lovely soft yarn, and then knit your own dog’s portrait using his hair and a KANINE KNITS dog portrait pattern.
Come see how KANINE KNITS celebrates dogs at the VIP FIBERS booth at Stitches West in
The Crafty Dog Book Series will be for sale, plus if you order a pattern using the special code available at the booth, you’ll receive a special extra pattern FREE created just for this show.
So come visit the world of dogs at the VIP FIBERS booth and see the knitted dog portraits from KANINE KNITS.
s though they lived next door.
Since I do intarsia in all my Kanine Knits designs, I've started a Ravelry group called Knit Intarsia Pictures, where members are of any skill level, from those who can knit sweaters what have scenes that circle the entire garment to beginners who have been frightened to try what to them seems so hard. When you join a group, you suddenly get people who care about you and what you want to do, who will help you along the way and who will share your successes.
ard work will already be done for you.
Wizard of Oz, is a scrappy terrier, not tall but with substance and strength.
ilable for a while, but have just completed the smooth.

is in the bloom, that halo of fiber hair that appears when the stitch is completed. Though it doesn't show when the yarn is in a ball, it suddenly fills your knitting as you work and fills in any space within or between stitches. Rather than working on #US8 needles, I decided to jump up to #US15. This should have produced a scarf full of holes. Instead, the bloom filled every space and the result was a lovely soft as cashmere scarf which weighed almost nothing and was warm as toast. Since dog hair is eight times warmer than wool, the scarf will be perfect for chasing away the January chill.




especially the Samoyed/Marino blend that is so beautiful, and getting ready to teach my seminar.

Award of Merit in the Best of Breed competition.

ning portraits in knitting of a single breed of dog. As she explains in her Forward to The Crafty Golden Retriever – Knits, “Really, what could be better? Yarn, a pair of knitting needles, a good pattern, and a faithful companion by your side.”
help of those who know and care about the breed most. These stories in turn inspire portraits. These are portraits of Goldens hunting, doing agility, rescuing a child, diving from a dock, and performing a myriad of activities that make these dogs distinctive. Only these portraits are created using knitting stitches. The knitted portraits appear as more than 20 charted graphs that knitters may work into any of the 24 sweater and accessory patterns included.
tivity as well as just being dogs. The photographers who illustrate the book are Betty Schmidt, who specializes in photos of dogs competing in field trials or hunting with their owners, and Mary and Joseph MacQueen, who photograph dogs from their own Nitro Golden kennel, Mary shares the experience of her work in search and rescue and drug detection in which she and her dog Ch. Robin are vitally active. Robin is in a leagu
e of his own and story is an inspiration..
s at dog shows and this was my first knitting show. I found that they are very similar, except for the fact that there were no dogs visiting my booth (bummer).
etc.
I hope that everyone enjoyed looking at Peggy Gaffney's version of a dog show with all my portraits of dogs in knitting displayed in my Kanine Knits booth and that they will look for me at shows in the future and visit my website at www.kanineknits.com to see even more designs than I had room to display at the show.
riting, I get to go meet knitters. July 12-15 I will be in Manchester, New Hampshire at the Knitting and Crochet Show sponsored by the Knitting Guild of America and the Crochet Guild of America. I will have a booth so that knitters and crocheters may examine all my deigns and books, and check out the sample sweaters. It will be very different for me to have a booth that doesn't have dogs walking through it. I am really looking forward to making new friends and learning what designs that knitters might like me to create. I get my best ideas when talking to dog fanciers or knitters. I hope everyone will come visit me in my booth.