Welcome to Mrs Shank Designs

Welcome to Mrs Shank Designs! Let’s do a little introduction, shall we?

After years of trying, my mother taught me to knit when I was in my early 20s on acrylic yarn from Mary Maxim with plastic straight needles. I made a pair of slippers. They were knit flat. Cast on at the heel, knit the length of the foot and then decreased to a rounded point at the end. Then they were seamed up along the top of the foot and the back of the heel. Voila, the best first knit project ever. A lot of knitting practice, a little purling, some decreasing and a whole lot of seaming. She even added a pompom to the top of the foot for a little pizzazz, so I learned to make those too.

Over the last 20 years, I’ve taught a whole lot of people how to knit, often using that very slipper pattern as a starting point.

Shortly after adopting our dog Nacho, I knit a stripey sweater and then immediately made a matching one for him. The construction was absolutely awful, but it was the cutest thing I had made him up to that point and it was my go to for walkies with him. Fast forward a couple years of test knitting and pattern construction and I was designing The Dottie Sweater.

Since then, my designs have been published in Knit Now and on Knitty.com and Love Crafts – and my family has joined in on the fun! It’s all Shanks on deck behind the scenes, bringing you patterns to twin with your doggo, spotlights on fun shops you’ll love and tutorials on how to do it all.