The Crafty Samoyed Knits: Knitting Projects for Dog Lovers (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781499270594)

Peggy Gaffney has written ten knitting books designed to delight pet lovers, especially those with dogs. Her first, which has just been newly relased in an updated full color version is THE CRAFTY SAMOYED KNITS and her newest is the wonderful new full color adventure in knitting pet pictures, KNIT A KITTEN PURL A PUPPY. She has a talent for capturing the look of each animal in her unique 'portrait knits' which are almost lifelike in their detail. Peggy has spent most of her life pursuing her favorite hobbies of knitting and showing her purebred Samoyed dogs. Her designs reflect her love for animals. The world of 'picture knitting' is one where Peggy could use her design skills to build a picture in stitches. Using needles and yarn she takes simple stockinette stitches and works a picture which grows with each row and is in integral part of the finished garment. This Intarsia technique, gives a freedom for detail that is not possible in other forms of knitting. Whether the design is worked in a pillow, sweater, scarf or hat, she gives the knitter a chance to show off their favorite pet. Kanine Knits publishes not only the collection of Crafty Knits books but also individual pet portrait patterns which are available through their website. Peggy's spent more than ten years as a custom knitting designer creating one-or-a-kind sweaters and accessories for owners of some of the top dogs in the country. Having been a writer in many genre throughout her life, the idea of translating these designs into book form was a natural choice. Her dog knitting books each focus 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 what makes each of them unique. 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 as well as submitted by fancier around the country. With The Crafty Llama and Alpaca Knits, she dealt with the two well known camelids and discussed the history, what they do and of course talked about the fleece which is of so much importance not only with the breeders but with knitters craving luxury fibers. The book is filled with photos of these animals in action.