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About Us


Hello!

We’re Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner. Thanks for being here. You’re the reason we created Modern Daily Knitting. We hope you’ll come often and be a part of this community of people who can’t quite seem to knit enough.

For a quick tour of MDK, here’s an overview:

How to MDK: A User Manual

(And here’s a handy supplement: How to Save Articles in Your MDK Account with One Click.)

How It All Began

We started MDK as a blog, on a lark really, in 2003. At that time, Ann and Kay were internet pen pals who had not met in person.

Before long, we found ourselves amid a warm, friendly, and smart community of knitters. It was all virtual—we didn’t meet in person until 2004, after we had signed a contract for our first knitting book.

In 2015, we hunkered down to turn MDK into the site we have always craved: a delicious daily read for every knitter. Our new site launched in September 2016, and it’s been a joyful journey since then.

We Have a Mission

MDK is an ever-evolving world online and in real life where knitting is celebrated, explored, and taught. With a lot of laughs along the way.

At all times, we keep in mind MDK Rule No. 1: Knitting is supposed to be fun.
MDK features wonderful designers, great writers and teachers, and a community of knitters all over the world coming together with a shared love of knitting, yarn, and good design.

It’s our hope to make this the ultimate rabbit hole for knitters. Every knitter is welcome here. Pull up a chair, and sit by us.

Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion of all knitters, regardless of race, age, color, gender, sexuality, religion, disability or other difference, are core values of MDK.  In a letter to our readers in early 2019, we wrote that MDK is “committed to expanding the diversity of the writers we feature, the designers we work with, and the yarnmakers whose products we sell.” We are working on that commitment every day, and will continue to do so. You should expect to see it in the content we publish, the products we sell, and the other fun things we sponsor. We stand firmly against white supremacy and will not tolerate intolerance or hate speech in our spaces.

Hey, We Have a Shop

There’s a moment in knitting that we love: we see a project or a yarn, and we want it. That feeling of discovery is at the heart of the MDK Shop.

The MDK Shop features the most delicious things we can find. We bring you only the yarns we want to knit with, the patterns we want to explore, the tools and sundries we think are the coolest. If we are writing about it or offering it to you, it’s because we love it. We’re lucky to be working with yarnmakers and designers we’ve admired for a long time.

Every purchase in the MDK Shop supports our mission and keeps our daily content free and open to all knitters. We are proud that MDK brings the best and brightest of the knitting world to knitters’ screens every day, for free.

Quality content costs money, and creative work deserves fair compensation. The knitters who shop with us make it possible for MDK to pay writers, designers, editors, graphic designers, photographers, website designers, and everyone else who makes this place go.  We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Our Very Collectible Books

Every few months, we publish a little book that explores the big world of knitting. Our MDK Field Guides each feature three or four patterns by designers we admire, with exquisite yarns that are available in the MDK Shop. They’re beautiful to hold, fun to knit from, and full of gorgeous photographs.

Another Way to Support MDK

MDK is an Amazon Associate. We occasionally link to products on Amazon.com, and we earn from qualifying purchases through those links.

Where Are We?

Kay lives in New York City. Ann lives in Nashville. We talk on the phone daily and send each other hundreds of emails a week.

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