Fun
It’s Our Birthday! Celebrate With Us!
We can hardly believe it, but as of today, MDK is three years old.
To celebrate, we’re having a sale in the MDK Shop.
If you haven’t shopped with us yet, now is a perfect time. Can we brag for a minute and say that our ecommerce team sends a really nice package? That customers have written to tell us that a shipment from MDK is like getting a present? That we curate the heck out of our offerings, and that every single thing we sell is something that we love ourselves, as knitters with a combined 60 years (whoa) of devotion to the craft?
Check us out. If you like what you see, apply the coupon code WEARE3 at checkout for a 10 percent discount on any order over $25. This deal is good through 11:59 pm Central time on Monday, October 7.
The State of the MDK
When you’re publishing something new every day at 3:30 in the morning, the days fly by. But we do want to pause for a minute to consider how it’s going.
Something for You, Every Day
We started a personal blog in 2003, then reinvented MDK in 2016 as a daily knitting magazine, community, micro-publisher, and online shop. (What got into us?)
MDK today very closely resembles the vision that we scrawled out on countless yellow legal pads, and typed into Google Sheets that became so numerous that we needed a Google Sheet to track our Google Sheets.
The main thing we wanted to accomplish is happening: a daily read for all knitters, full of information, inspiration, and fun, with many voices contributing. Plus: Snippets! We never dreamed we’d be drinking our Saturday morning coffee with thousands of pajama-clad knitters every week, but here we are! And it’s awesome. (If you’d like to join us, sign up over there on the right sidebar, under “MDK Newsletter.”)
We’re thankful to every writer, designer, photographer, artist, and knitter who has said yes. It is a joy to present your work.
A Simple Plan
Our business plan is pretty old school: sell beautiful books, yarns, and supplies to knitters, and use the proceeds to compensate the many talented people who create this place. We hope you always find something wonderful to elevate your knitting. Your purchases keep MDK’s daily content free of charge—and free of ads—to all knitters. It’s that simple.
The Long and Winding Road
There have been so many surprises along the way! Who knew we’d be publishing a series of Field Guides? Or that there’d be a tournament of indie knitting patterns modeled on college basketball? Or a recipe column for 1920s brides? Or watercolor paintings of sweaters and socks? Or a monthly rundown of colorful sweater patterns? We keep searching for fun for knitters, and we hope to find many more surprises as we go.
Find Field Guides at Your Yarn Shop—and Now Canada, Too!
Thank you to all the yarn shops who stock MDK Field Guides—we appreciate it so much and hope you’re having fun with them.
Breaking news: We just launched distribution of our Field Guides to yarn shops in Canada. (Shop list here, scroll down.) Ask your local yarn shop to carry them. And if you’re a Canadian yarn shop, contact us, and we’ll help you get set up with Field Guides.
Finally . . .
Thank you for being a part of MDK. We can’t say it enough: you all are the best. We’re lucky to know you—and if we haven’t yet met in person, well, let’s work on that.
Thank you both! I so enjoy MDK. On days i cant find the time to get even a stitch in, you keep me motivated to try again tomorrow.
My sentiments from the UK exactly! Happy Birthday MDK,
Happy birthday, and may there be many more!!! I’ve been reading pretty much since the beginning, and as someone who doesn’t do Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and whatever other thing is out there (I know, Luddite), I just have to say – This. Site. Is. The. Best.
Amen, sister! Thank you and Happy Birthday to everyone at MDK!
Thank YOU!
A big Thank You to both of you, your columnists & your team members for hard work, dedication, creativity & humor which helps get all of us through the day. I’m always learning something new or laughing or nodding in agreement or listening to a podcast or putting a movie suggestion on my “to watch” list.
Thank you so much! My morning routine: let the dogs out, start coffee, get paper, read the latest news from MDK.
Your daily email is the first thing I read every morning. You both are a great and I feel like I have gained 2 more good friends! Thanks and happy birthday
It has been a blast! Don’t know how I knitted without you! Thanks ever so much for greeting me so lovingly each morning for 3 years.
Yes, thank YOU!! You are helping us Knit the World Together—and isn’t it just so much fun?
Thanks for everything, I love the field guides and the years of techniques and the daily mail. Now that you have conquered Canada I hope you turn your sights to Australia
Happy Birthday, MDK! Thanks for being my tribe. Y’all are Awesome! (P.S. Is there cake?)
Canada? The field guides will be available in Canada! That is one heck of a way to celebrate your birthday. I’m so happy about this. Of course, I’m now off to convince some Toronto yarn shops to carry them.
Oh yes! There definitely needs to be some cake!
Congratulations! Hard to believe it’s been 3 years!
Thank YOU!! I’m so happy you are here. Before I even get out of bed in the morning I read your email. It gets my day off to the perfect start. Thank you.
A Huge-A$$ thank you to all the writers, designers, photographers, knitters, and those that work at MDK! I really look forward to opening my mail in the morning. Congratulations, Ann and Kay for a job well done!
I love having my morning coffee while reading your posts! I have learned so many new techniques, discovered designers, been inspired to think outside the box, and have had fun listening to and/or watching all kindds of things. I especially enjoyed #MKDwandering socks. Keep us the good work and thank you.
Thank you for all your dedication, support and inspiration! Happy Birthday
Thank you. You bring joy and fun and great knowledge each day. What a wonderful array of designers I now call friends. Glad to support the shop. So grateful for the broader content, too. You are blessings.
Happy Birthday MDK. You’ve brought fun, joy and inspiration into my knitting
Happy Birthday MDK! I so enjoy your wit and humour every morning – thank you for sharing and getting my day off to a good start 🙂
Thank you both! I am amazed that I find something from you every morning. My dog is not as happy as I read the post and its references before our walk…
I was thrilled to read that you are now distributing in Canada. I forwarded the info to my LYS. Hoping to purchase from you soon.
Keep it up. You are my every morning sunshine.
Regards,
Lynn
Happy Birthday ! It is my birthday too Thank you for all the wonderful insights into knitting through your work on this page !❤️
Congratulations on your anniversary. Obviously you are doing something right, meeting a need and sticking to your goals. May each of us be the benefactors of your efforts.
Congratulations! MDK rocks!!! I look forward to everything you offer. Your witty writing and your eye for what is happening in the knitting world is a real joy. And it is true…receiving a package from MDK is like a gift. My hope is that you will be celebrating many more birthdays!
Happy Birthday, MDK! I’m a fairly new subscriber (you had me with Field Guide No.11, Wanderlust) and you have brought such joy into my knitting life! Actually my whole life, period! Every morning, while my world is quiet, I treat myself to coffee and MDK. What an informative, inspiring, and fun way to start my day! Thank you, thank you!
Happy birthday . Thanks for sharing the ride!
Congratulations and thank you! one of my favorite daily stops on the internet.
Happy Birthday!!!!!! I sooooo enjoy your letters, designers, techniques, book reviews and the music!!! Keep up the great work ladies. Sending many more birthday wishes to all at MDK
Happy Birthday! I raise my needles to you and send wishes for many more great years of MDK!
Thank you ! I truly feed off all your inspiration !
It’s been amazing, hasn’t it?! Congratulations, Hooray, and All Happiness.
Happy Birthday! ❤
I can’t imagine my life now without MDK: I love your yarn, your notions, your letters and all the tips and tricks from you and your contributors! It’s so much fun – thank you for making it all work so seamlessly! Happy Birthday!
I wake up every morning. Get my tea. Sit down at my computer to read your posts and whoosh the day begins! I love that you write as if I alone am your audience. Of course, I know that’s not true. But I still feel like the days when I would run out to get a letter in the mail.
Congratulations! You two are a daily joy.
Happy Birthday! I love you guys! Thank you for sharing so many of your talents and ideas with all of us. I love getting your daily emails. So fun!
Always good to know that my purchases do more than make me happy — they keep MKD free of charge — and free of ads. Doesn’t get better than that!
Happy Birthday!
A huge thank you to you! You are the first thing I read each day. What a great way to launch a day, with a smile on my face!
Happy Birthday to MDK! I look forward to reading your message every day. Thank you and staff for all you do. ❤️
Love the idea……spend and save…..deb
Happy Birthday MDK! And thank you for being a part of my daily “I look forward to” routine.
Love your blogs. I look forward to them each day. Congratulations on your 3 year anniversary, may there be many more!
Happy Birthday!! I loved scrolling through that slide show!
Happy Birthday to your publication. I have been reading your blogs since 2003 and learned a lot about knitting. Love the new format because you invite other knitters into your world who have information to share with us.
Happy birthday! I ❤️ MDK and have been with you since Day 1. Here’s to many more!
Happy birthday greetings from one who includes you every day in my coffee driven, pj-clad morning routine. I appreciate all that you contribute daily to influence and inform my knitting and yarn passion. Keep up the good work, which you both clearly love!!
Happy Birthday. I so enjoy these posts and have also learned so much from them. Thanks for a great start to my daily knitting.
Happy Birthday! Don’t forget to add the Knitting Getaway to your list of accomplishments! It’s MDK Live!
Thank you both for sharing so much of your lives “and your knitting” with us.
Happy Birthday! I am so glad you guys are here. I found ya’ll online in the early days of my knitting (early 2000s) when I was living in the UK and the original blog was a lifeline during grad school and everything since. Thanks for being awesome!
Thank you for your sanity (a rare commodity nowadays), creativity, and humor. I look forward to meeting up with you on this page every morning.
Happy Birthday! So glad I found this great site. So often I forward some of the delightful articles, personality pages to the husband!
Congratulations!!!!
Happy Birthday! I loved, loved, loved looking at all of the photos at the top of the page! You all made me smile!!! As I read on below, I was afraid you were going to announce that you were cutting back on your letters. I was bracing myself to be let down easily…..but you didn’t do that! WooHoo!!! I look forward to your letters every morning……your writings are akin to a sweet chocolate after lunch! I hope you never stop.
Enjoy your birthday celebration…..and now I’m going to go shop in your shop!
Thanks for you-doing-you (in the best possible sense)! I was blessed to find you thru KnitStars & following along every day (here from Cda). Love it!!
I so love MDK. It starts my day and keeps me knitting all week.
Happy Birthday MDK!!! Thank you for all the fun you provide on the daily. I’m so glad I found you both. You are my very favorite inbox find each day!
Happy Birthday to MDK! You guys are Da Bomb. Some days the only thing that maintains my faith in humanity – a lugubrious comment but true. Long may your magazine thrive to entertain, inform and broaden the horizons of us knitters. Thank you so much.
I heart you both.
Heartiest congratulations! May you go from strength to strength!
Reading your blog and window shopping your site is the highlight of my morning. I so want to be able to do what you are doing someday. Pendleton has no yarn stores, no quilt shops and no just plain fabric stores and that is awful. You are my lifeline to sanity.
Happy Birthday Congratulations! Love your daily notes, the Field Guides, the gorgeous yarns, and you most of all!
Congratulations. Like so many, I have been a follower for years, a daily reader, have each and every Field Guide, am a MDK shopper and grateful for all of the hard work of both of you and your team. I look forward to many more years.
Happy Happy Birthday MDK I don’t know what I did before I started following y’all! I so look forward to reading your posts everyday, and twice on Saturdays with Snippets!! Thank you for all you bring to my life and pls keep up the great work;) Knit On!!!
Warmest congratulations on three years! Since 2016, I’ve started my day with a cup of coffee and MDK, lifted by your good humor, wonderful writing, insights on life, and (of course!) all-things-knitting. You two, as well as your talented cadre of contributors, have really accomplished something special. Thank you so much!
I was a casual reader of other yarn/knitting websites, occasionally taking advantage of sales or hyped patterns….until I found MDK! It’s been about a year now, and, like so many others on this page, I tend to go here first every day for information, product, pattern, and just plain JOY! (You lost me for a while when you went on about socks, which interest me not in the least, but obviously that didn’t last.)
Happy birthday! Think I’ll get myself a birthday gift while I’m here. And I’ll be back. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.
I’ve cancelled the newspaper and stay off Social Media. All I need is MDK and the weather report. Thank you for three wonderful years. Best wishes for many more.
Happy Birthday! And thank you for inspiring my knitting, and providing hilarious laughter along the way
Congratulations! Your daily column is a must for me, and I would subscribe even if you had to charge for it. My knitting has improved with all the tips. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Happy Birthday! And thank you for the effort that goes into the site, the newsletter, the shop…and the daily dose of entertainment and inspiration!
Nothing new to say here… just that you guys ROCK and I can’t imagine a day without MDK, which accompanies my first cup of coffee every morning. So glad to have met Kay in person — Ann, you’re on my bucket list! I’ve learned so much from your blog, though frankly, I’m happiest when one of you is the author and you’re just your funny selves.
Happy 3rd anniversary! I love your site and look forward to you both everyday! Thank you for bringing humor , information and fun to my life! I love you both!
You gals rock!! I look forward to reading you every morning with my early morning tea. You have inspired me! & Made me laugh! So thanks for the heartfelt company and HAPPY Birthday ! May you have many more…
Thank you for hanging in there for three years so far. I came for Kermit and Olive and stayed for the consistently helpful and fun adventures in knitting. I have learned so much, and I am a better knitter because of you. Thank you!
A heartfelt thank you to both of you for everything you do for us! Happy Birthday and here’s to many more!!
Me too! Happy birthday mdk. I also adore you two lovely ladies and all your fabulous contributors. Always inspiring and entertaining. I don’t do social media or tv anymore so I love that you send me your email. It is my little pleasure for the day every day, I save it for a moment when I know I won’t be interrupted, which isn’t til bedtime some days, but it’s always worth the wait xx
Happy anniversary! Can’t wait to see what the next year will bring!
Congratulations to both of you! I have been a fan ever since your first book and continue to be inspired by your myriad of projects. I just bought Big Joy and am loving my Brambleberry. The Lounge has all the advice a knitter could need, and has allowed me to share in charity knitting with Mitered Squares. More Franklin (and maybe Bettina?) please……and I can’t imagine a Saturday without Snippets!!
Really, 3? Already???
I second all the comments. Really, you do so much more than the obvious. Look at this awesome community. You built that! Congratulations, Happy 3rd, and lots of love to you.
As another commentor said above, thanks for your sanity. You showcase creative people who personify what is good and kind in this world and, boy do we need that now!
Happy New Blog Birthday to you both! Three years equals 1,095 days where you made my day brighter! (Plus the many days between 2005–for me–and 2016 of the Old Blog.) I bless the day, years ago, where I first encountered your book at my local library. I’ve had such a good time ever since. Thank you both a million times! Oh, and thank your contributors, too!
You both are wonderful ladies and knitters. I love your daily posts. Happy Birthday
🙂
I’ve been following you since your “early days” and have really loved the last three years of MDK. Thank you, Ann and Kay, for inspiring my knitting, introducing me to so many talented makers, and creating a wonderful community.
Love everything about MDK!
Happy anniversary! You have brought such joy, not to mention a knitterly community into my life. I can’t thank you enough for all you do to bring such high quality content and such beauty into all our lives.
Congratulations ladies! You bring a little happiness into my life every morning.
Like so many, I read your entry with morning coffee. I love the wide range you offer and learn so much. Thank you so much.
Happy birthday, MDK! Thank you, Ann and Kay, for making such a warm, joyous, welcoming online space for knitters. Thank you for introducing me to so many special makers as well as beautiful projects and yarns. Here’s to the next 3 years, and I hope many more to come!
Happy Birthday! I’m new to this-just re finding it after Knit Stars 3.0. Loving all the good stuff. Big smiles all around.
Happy, happy birthday MDK! I love that you write every single day. I don’t know how you do that, but it’s a commitment I totally appreciate. I love the people you bring to us…designers, knitters, dyers…all artists and inventors. I love it all. thank you and blessings upon you. Long may you thrive!
Happy birthday! As some folks I know would say, you done good!
Happy birthday! I hadn’t realized until today, but you share a birthday with my daughter (2) and niece (7), so it’s a pretty epic day.
Happy Birthday to MDK, and cheers to the two Very Inspiring People behind it all xoxo
Good morning from a pajama clad, coffee drinking knitter! I love your Snippets! It’s my Saturday morning must read… Just ask my husband! I am grateful for the inspiration of fiber, fun and fabulous color. Thank you to all of the hard working individuals who keep MDK going! ☺️❤️
Happy Birthday!!
Happy Birthday! Your daily email if the first thing I look for in my in-box. Thank for all the information and the fun you send out into the world!
Congratulations!!! You two have made a wonderful community.
Congratulations! You two are an inspiration! I have learned so much, and had too many laughs to count, from reading MDK for most of the time since 2003. I would have to go into the archives to see the first posts I read. Thank you for making the Field Guides available in Canada. Now I will start bugging the people at some Toronto yarn shops to stock them.
Happy Happy Happy!!! I was not knitting in 2016, but it didn’t take me long after learning in 2017 that this was the place to pick up ideas, tips, YARN and most of all comradery. Thank you for your daily letters. Thank you for convincing all those wonderful teachers and designers to collaborate with you.
Congratulations! And thank you! You two are simply the best!
Happy Belated Birthday, I just love MDK. Thank you also for all the love and care for fellow knitters that you put into your newsletters. They are a “shelter from the storm”XXXX
Always look forward to a cup of coffee and you guys! I have been inspired to challenge myself with your Field Guides, and really appreciate the tutorials! Many thanks for doing what you do!
Catching up today… I echo all the sentiments. I love grabbing a cup of coffee and reading your letters. I also appreciate being able to click on the little flag to save a technique for later. You’ve shared wonderful people with us.
I remember first reading the first book and laughing out loud to read about the lace curtain for the window over the bathtub…Your true colors are shared so beautifully and that’s just one reason we all love you. CHALLENGE to our knitting sisters: make sure all knitters you encounter learn about this wonderful resource. I stop, grab a card, and write it down for people so they can find it when they get back home. Happy Birthday! Here’s to many more!