Give Her An Idea And She'll Run With It! Peggy Gaffney

VAV!/June 17, 2011 Interview by Ace Reporter, Rebecca E. Parsons

Peggy Gaffney, is an author, life long knitter and professional designer with talents that may well eclipse even the most discernible accomplishments of others. She also has spent more than forty years breeding and showing the beautiful Arctic dogs, the Samoyeds. In 1995 she put these two things together and began creating dog portrait sweaters for members of the dog fancy. Hundreds of sweaters later, in 2005, Peggy decided to take her design skill in a new direction. She developed a novel concept in the world of knitting books with 'The Crafty Dog Knits' series, which she published through her own publishing house, Kanine Knits. Focusing on a single breed with each book, Peggy writes about everything that makes these dogs distinctive and then creates a series of portraits showing, using knitting charts, the dogs in action. These designs are then ready to be worked into the many patterns for sweaters and accessories included in each book.

So far, the books cover the dog breeds Samoyed; Labrador Retriever; Golden Retriever, Bernese Mt. Dog, Newfoundland, Welsh Corgis and Poodles.

Each book not only contains 25 charted designs but also 25 patterns for sweaters, hats, mittens, etc. into which the designs may be knit. Peggy has established a third of the book to reveal thoroughly detailed information about the breed and has also illustrated the breeds activities in the charts. Because of her 40 plus years of showing her Samoyed's, Peggy has developed a keen eye in identifying the distinctive characteristics of each breed and therefore is more than adept at designing these charts. 'The Crafty Dog Knit' series reveals Gaffneys' extraordinary talent in the best light for knitters who love their dogs. A seriously interested legion of followers await more publications from Peggy, and no doubt there will be books added to the 'Crafty Dog Knit' series.

For those breeds that don’t yet have a book, Ms. Gaffney has carefully designed more than 100 different single breed charts in her ‘Portraits of Dogs in Knitting’ pattern series which are available individually from her publisher Kanine Knits.

While autographing her dog books at a knitting show, some members of the cat fancy who knew about the dog book series approached Peggy to ask for equal time by creating a knitting book for the cat lover. 'The Crafty Cat Knits' is the result.

While her dog knitting books are based on taking a single breed per book, creating designs of that breed in action, Peggy realized that this approach wouldn't work with cats. Though they might enjoy agility, cats don’t do 'obedience’, Peggy noted. So after discussing the approach with a number of cat fanciers, she decided to take a dozen breeds and focus just on them.

Each breed is featured in its own design accompanied by an object that emphasizes the cat’s history. The story explaining the breeds' origin is also included accompanied with more than 50 photos of cats taken by the author and submitted by cat fanciers around the country.

With all that Gaffney has accomplished with The Kanine Knit series, she reveals it was no surprise when a group of llama and alpaca breeders approached her to create a book for them. As they pointed out, “We’ve got yarn!” Peggy was only too happy to take on the challenge and that is how 'The Crafty Llama and Alpaca Knits' came into being.

With 'The Crafty Llama and Alpaca Knits', she studies these two camelids, discussing the history, what they do and of course talking about the fleece which is of so much importance with these animals. Thanks to the generosity of some breeders who shared photos of shearing for the book as well as two farms that invited her to shoot photos of their animals, the book is filled with pictures 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.

Peggy is a very active, highly coveted speaker and presenter to knitting and pet enthusiasts alike. Visitors to her website, Kanine Knits, are able to view Peggy's presentations.

If all of this talent weren't enough, after spending several years building an international publishing house, Kanine Knits, Peggy took her experience a step further in the world of self-publishing. She wrote a step-by-step guide for the writer who wants to publish and market their writing on their own. The book is called 'Do It Yourself Publishing Nonfiction in Your Spare Time.'

Peggy also teaches this style of publishing locally in a series of courses and shares the techniques as a speaker and workshop instructor at author’s seminars.

Peggy Gaffney... an incredible entrepreneur who is never fearful of shedding her own comfort zone to create 'with a purpose', and one astounding woman.

Kanine Knits Website

Kanine Knits Blog

Find Kanine Books and Patterns on Facebook

Follow Kanine Knits on Twitter

Kanine Knits Newsletter

(Ace Reporter, Rebecca E. Parsons is the Creator of Compass Magazine)