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Mason-Dixon Knitting Changes Name

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Mason-Dixon Knitting started in 2003 as a blog written by two online knitting friends — Ann Shayne in Tennessee and Kay Gardiner in New York — who had never met in real life. Together they published two books and have since turned the website into a space for daily knitting content and a storefront where they sell their own field guides to knitting as well as yarn and other goodies.

But the name of the site is problematic because of the racist history of the Mason-Dixon line as the dividing line between slave states and those where slavery was prohibited.

Dana Williams-Johnson, a regular contributor to the site, wrote that the name “always felt like a punch to the gut” when it would come up in web searches. “Eventually, I stopped looking at the name and focused on what their site was doing and I found that I had a place there. Just like with my site, I found a place where I hoped I could be seen.”

She said that she “can’t just get back to knitting” amid the protests and mistreatment of Black people in the news.

Lately, with everything going on in the news, I’ve been thinking, as much as people love my photos and tell me just how cute my husband is, if you saw him walking in Central Park wearing one of his hand knit sweaters and he asked you to put your dog on a leash—would you threaten to call the police on him and tell him he’s threatening you when he’s not? Like what happened to Christian Cooper. If you saw him going for a run in your neighborhood, would he get gunned down like Ahmaud Arbery? For as much love and support I get online about my knitting, if I was murdered in my own home while I slept like Breonna Taylor, would you demand justice for me? Or would you just keep knitting?

Ann and Kay responded by changing the name of their website to Modern Daily Knitting. In an Instagram post announcing the change, they said “We are deeply sorry for the pain we caused by having a name that did not communicate a warm welcome to all knitters, including Black knitters and knitters of color. We apologize for taking so long to realize that our name could not and should not stand.”

They noted that changes are being made across platforms and printed materials to complete the change.

I post this as news, not to get into a political debate and whether the change was necessary, and I hope any comments on this post will reflect that as well.

Comments

  3. The gals at MDK just now figured out that there might be a problem with their name? How amazingly stupid of them.

  4. I am so delighted with the name change! For many years I stayed away from your book and sight because of the name. Then I got entranced by the blog. So I say YIPEEEEE! Change is good.

  8. This change is long overdue: the name WAS alarming and stupid. Who ever thought it was cute or clever???.

  9. I applaud your name change and your reasoning. I have and will continue perusing your site, with a lighter heart.

  10. Thank you for being so open with your decision, and it makes me feel so much better about it too… Happy knitting and honouring us with your decision

  12. The name always made me cringe, and I was surprised that two women who seemed so intelligent didn’t realize that it was offensive, not just to Black people, but other people who don’t appreciate the legacy of the old South.

    I liked their projects, but could never let myself follow them or buy any of their projects.

    This is the ignorance and contempt that Black people feel from whites, which we be so oblivious to. But this was glaring and obvious. I’m glad they changed the name, but damn it took a very long time.

Have you read?

Fun Halloween Cowls to Knit

One of the fun things about knitters is that we will use a holiday theme on any kind of project. From Easter bunny socks to Christmas sweaters, there’s no combination of holiday motif and knitwear genre we won’t combine. 

Case in point: Halloween cowls. 

This fun cowl from Sweet Vireo Designs features large carved pumpkins and little cats and skulls. It uses two colors of DK weight yarn and I love the multicolored yarn for the background color on this one. And the braids! So cute. 

Spooky Season by Jocelyn Tunney (also on Ravelry) uses fingering weight yarn in two colors to make a design with crescent moons and eyes. There are two circumferences and two heights available so you can make it a neck hugger or a slightly bigger project if you like. 

Make more moons with the Broom Riding Cowl from Vanessa Ewing Knits. This two color pattern looks extra fun with a multicolored yarn for the colorwork, but you can use a solid as well. It calls for DK weight yarn but there is also a fingering weight version if you have some yarn in your stash you want to use. 

Jinx Made has another fun Halloween cowl, this time covered in skulls. South Philly Skulls uses DK weight yarn and comes in two lengths, and there’s also a matching hat pattern, both of which can be found on Ravelry. 

The Ghost Stories cowl from Melissa Knit Wear is a two-color cowl with ghosts of different sizes on the body. It uses DK weight yarn, and average sized skeins will allow you to get two cowls out of two skeins. It also calls for stitch markers to help you keep your place in the chart. 

Or stitch up a cowl with a giant bat on it. The Nightling Cowl from Jen Immer uses DK weight yarn in two colors and has moons and a large bat on it. This pattern can be found on Ravelry. 

How about spooky trees? The Weirwood Cowl from Andrea Krüß-Anders is inspired by the weirwood trees in the Game of Thrones books, and is worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn. You can find this free pattern on Ravelry. 

If a bandana cowl is more your thing, try Cowloween from Tellybean Knits (on Ravelry). This colorful design is worked from the top down and features pumpkins, ghosts and candy colored stripes, and is worked in a light fingering weight yarn. There are kid and adult sizes available.