Keep Posted with Our

Kanine Knits Newsletter

Kanine Knits Books & Patterns

Portraits of Pets in Knitting    

Martha Stewart Honors Peggy Gaffney

To read the interview that Martha Stewart's assistant  did, click here.

New! Hear a radio interview with Peggy Gaffney being interviewed by host Harry Rinker about creating her designs and writing her books.

Video Visit with Peggy Gaffney
Click Here

Peggy Gaffney
Designer
since 1995

 Meet  Designer Peggy Gaffney

            Peggy Gaffney is the author of eight knitting books of intarsia designs celebrating the worlds of dogs and cats. So when a group of llama and alpaca breeders approached her to create a book for them, she was only too happy to take on the challenge. As they pointed out, “We’ve got yarn!” So that is how The Crafty Llama and Alpaca Knits came into being.
            Peggy has owned a variety of cat breeds through the years as well as Samoyed show dogs since 1968. A life-long knitter, she has been designing professionally since 1995 concentrating on creating portraits of show dogs as intarsia knitting designs. Toward this end, she has created over 100 patterns in her Portraits of Dogs in Knitting collection which she markets to knitters around the world.
            In 2000, Peggy decided to take her design skill in a new direction and create a series of knitting books that would be unique by focusing on the world of dogs. So far, she has created seven books in The Crafty Dog Knits series. Last year, she was approached by members of the cat fancy and asked to give them equal time by creating a knitting book for cat lover. The Crafty Cat Knits is the result.
            Her dog knitting books are based on taking a single breed per book and creating designs of that breed in action. She realized that this wouldn’t work with cats. Though they might enjoy agility, cats don’t do ‘obedience.’ So after discussing the approach with a number of fanciers, she decided to take a dozen breeds and focus on them. Each breed gets its own design accompanied by an object that figures in the cat’s history. The story that explains how each breed came to be is included along with more than 50 photos of cats taken by the author and submitted by fancier around the country.
            With The Crafty Llama and Alpaca Knits, she dealt with these two camelids and discussed the history, what they do and of course talked about the fleece which is of so much importance with these breeds. Thanks to the generosity of some breeders who shared photos for the book as well as two farms that let her come do photo shoots, the book is filled with photos of these wonderful creatures in action.
            The Crafty Llama and Alpaca Knits is published by Kanine Knits which is also the publisher of The Crafty Cat Knits and the Crafty Dog Knits series which includes book about: Samoyeds, Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, Bernese Mt Dogs, Newfoundlands, Welsh Corgis and Poodles.
            Peggy Gaffney built her international publishing business after retiring from her first two careers as teacher and librarian.

Peggy Gaffney has been a Breeder/Owner/Handler of purebred Samoyeds since 1968

Samoyeds of Westernesse

My 'Ron' winning the 1971 SCA National

Ria

Seamus asleep in the snow

Knitting Books
Knitting Patterns
Crochet Patterns
Needlecraft Patterns
Press Room
Questions & Answers
Newsletter
What Clients Say
Favorite Links
 

Also from Kanine Knits Publishing 

Do It Yourself Publishing Nonfiction In Your Spare Time

A 'how-to' book that teaches
writers how to publish
their own books.
Learn more at:
http://www.diypublishingnon-fiction.com