I sent off some fur from my dog to be spun 6 long months ago and it’s finally here! :woohoo:
My older dog, Laika, is a Husky/ Chow mix and typically sheds a little bit all year, but then twice a year she “blows” her coat and huge clumps of her soft undercoat come out. For years, I just brushed and brushed her and tossed the hair out… but then I found out that there are people who will spin this into yarn for you! It’s actually the reason I started knitting in the first place, so I’d know how to make myself a scarf when I got my Laika yarn.
Now it’s been a year and a half and I am totally addicted to knitting. I’m also not sure a scarf is what I’m going to make…
Anyway, here are some photos. The yarn is a 2-ply sport weight, and I got 2 hanks, totalling about 320 yards. It is a tan-gray color. Laika is many different colors - predominantly gray but also some tan, white, cream, and black. :woot:
Oh my gods, that’s awesome! My dog is part husky, too, and does the PUFF and sheds like a monster all through summer. I so want to get some Missy yarn. :3 What’s the link to their website?
Does she know the yarn is from her?
My poodle use to react very strangely to her pile of hair when I’d clip her, even more when I’d arrange the pile so it looked like a dog laying on the floor.
Here is the website. Be aware, they told me the yarn would be mine in 6-8 WEEKS, and it took over 6 MONTHS! I am not a very patient person, and it was killing me. Of course it doesn’t really matter since I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet, but still! :teehee:
They charge you by the ounce. My 2 hanks were about $100. Outrageous, I know. But it’s a keepsake of Laika I hope to have long after she’s gone. cloud9
Mike, you crack me up. We were also joking that I should make a dog sweater for Laika out of it. I have never seen her cold, EVER! When we lived in NC, she would be out playing in the snow and would actually lay down panting.
Actually the one that is really interested in the yarn and tries to grab it is Kate, my other dog. Laika doesn’t really care. Then again, it may just be because I was showing it around at work, making a big deal out of it. I don’t know if she would have been so interested if I’d just handled it like any other yarn. They usually leave my stash alone.
It does smell kind of funny. Not a doggy smell (Laika actually usually smells faintly of shampoo). But they shampoo the yarn at the spinner, and what they used has a strong floral, grandma-like scent. I put it in with my other stash, hoping that the scent will be replaced with that of the soap I have in there.
That is so cool! Maybe a skinny scarf? Or a neck warmer? You know how we need those in socal! :teehee:
I wish I’d kept the fur from Marshmallow (Ragdoll cat in my avatar) over the years, but she’s 17.5 now and I don’t think I could accumulate enough to do anything.
There are two stories in a knitting story book I’m reading: (KnitLit by Linda Roghaar and Molly Wolf, editors) which are about knitting with dog hair. The stories in this book are meant to entertain, not to instruct, but you might find these interesting.
In one story, a woman knit a scarf for her ex-husband out of hair from a dog they had both loved.
When the parcel arrived at his house, his new dog tore it to shreds, including the scarf inside. The guy thought that she intended it to kill him with.
In the second story, a woman knitted herself a sweater-coat from her pet’s fur. She got caught in the rain in it, and noticed that on the bus, nobody would sit near her. The coat reeked, as only wet dog can. Her friend made her throw the coat away when they got home. She was glad to, as even she couldn’t stand the smell.
I just love the whole of this!! If fI would have known about it, I would have used some of my Mom’s dog’s hair for a hat or scarf. I can’t use my Dane’s hair, too short. Good luck with whatever project you decide to make!!!
That is SOOOOOOOOOO awesome!!! :woohoo:I used to have a long-haired German Shepherd before I was into knitting. Sure wished I’d had some of his yarn spun to make into something awesome!
Maureen, I’ve been saving Maddie’s hair for awhile now. She’s a double coated Norweigan Buhund, who, like Laika, sheds all summer long, and blows her coat twice a year. At 14, there’s not quite the same amount, but I have about 22 ounces. They weigh it [I]going in,[/I] and I’m afraid to send all that I have. Any suggestions? Her undercoat is only an inch to an inch and a half long, the top about an inch. If they need to blend it with something else, that’s OK, because I just want the skein, not going to knit anything with it. Her hair smells really bad when wet, don’t want to make anything with it, just have a skein after she’s gone.
Deb, I am not sure what your question is… :?? yes, they weigh it going in. I don’t think I had anywhere near 22 oz. Mine was about 1/4 of a pillowcase when I sent it. The 2 hanks together weigh about 8 or 9 oz.
I am not so sure that the yarn or the knitted object will be smelly when wet. I mean, no more than sheep’s wool is. Has anyone really seen a sheep up close? I worked with them in vet school and they are the filthiest animals! They get all sorts of crap stuck to their fleece and I remember working with some of them wondering how on earth they could use the fleece when it is so dirty. I think once fiber has been processed, it probably doesn’t matter the source. Maybe I’m wrong, though.
As far as saving hair from a short haired dog (eg Cyrus) with no undercoat, I think that at VIP fibers, they will spin pretty much anything, but they may have to blend it with another type of fiber. With a short haired breed, there will be a lot of waste. The ideal breeds are the double coated breeds, and you should only send in the undercoat if you want the yarn to be soft. Laika’s undercoat is pretty short fiber length, but it sticks together really well. Her top coat is longer, probably around 3 inches, but it isn’t as soft. If you look at the webpage, they have a list of what they currently have waiting to be spun, plus a picture of the animal. Most of them are Huskies and other Arctic breeds.
At our WESTERN WASHINGTON STATE FAIR, in the spinning and yarn building, I saw a woman spinning dog hairs! She said it was Saint Bernard fur.
I know what you mean about ‘blowing’ the coat. Our Saint does that, too. Sad thing, our now deceased Saint would blow his coat in October! So we couldn’t wait during hot summers. We’d have to shave him in July. I’d leave half his tail, and head. He looked like the LION KING.
Your yarn looks fabulous!!! Being spun from ‘short hairs’ the scarf (if you decide to make a scarf) may shed onto your coat.
Possibly a really great [B]slouch beret[/B] would keep shedding to a minimum. Socks will wear out, so I wouldn’t use this precious yarn for socks. Ravelry has 40 pages of beret patterns, some free, some not.
Did the spinner ply it with any other fiber? I can’t tell from the photo. Or, is it spun as a single ply of itself only?
[B]It is a wonderful keepsake, no matter what you decide to do![/B]
But, I vote for a slouch beret, and possibly wristlets with anything left over.
Darn, I posted the wrong picture and can’t remove it. Anyway, that is a relatively clean sheep. It was on a tiny farm we visited to trim hooves and vaccinate, etc.
The ones I WANTED to post are here: a mama sheep that a couple of classmates and I were charged with visiting every day for a couple of weeks. Each pregnant sheep and goat at the vet school gets a couple of students assigned to make sure they don’t have any problems during labor. Our poor sheep never did learn who we were, and each day when we went to visit her, she acted like we’d never been there before and tried to run away. SIGH! Most of the time she was out in the pasture with the other sheep and it was hard to find her - they all look alike except their ear tags.
When her due date approached, we brought her into the barn so at least she was easier to catch. She was SO dirty and stinky! I couldn’t imagine having a sweater made out of her. And our animals were really well cared for, it’s just that sheep fleece is really sticky. So all manner of dirt, weeds, straw, etc. was stuck all through her fleece. I never had to catch her when it was raining but I am sure she didn’t smell like Eucalan!
She finally had her babies (TRIPLETS) so we could turn her back out into the pasture with the other sheep. Our GOAT mama was so different. She knew who we were on Day 2! (We would bring them some grain to eat). She would actually come to greet us when we came to check on her.
Most animal fibres smell when wet, but some are more acceptable than others! I know what you mean about sheep wool smell, but when it is scoured/washed etc it is fine, if it still smells it is probably an old ram, that is a smell that never gets removed!!! For the same reason one would not use a male goat, llama etc for spinning.
But there is something about dog hair - the wet dog smell never quite goes when it is humid or damp no matter what processing it has been through.
I remember a fellow spinning group member who spun and knitted a beret from her samoyed, she could not smell anything, but the people who did not have dogs at home got a definate doggy whiff whenever she wore it in winter time.
Wow - really nice color! I want to do this with my 13 year old shitzu. I was thinking I’d make a small purse and felt it and keep his dog tags in it as a keep sake.
Maureen, that was a rather ambiguously worded question I left for you. I’ll email them again to see if I can get an answer. I really don’t want to send in 20 ounces if a part of it will be wasted, but I’ll still be charged. May just wait until our state fair this fall and see if I can find the woman spinning dog fur a few years ago.
Laika’s coloring is so beautiful, and the skein is really lovely. Maddie’s will be ‘buff’ colored, with tints of gold in it. I’m looking forward to getting it six or so months from now.
