About two weeks ago, my friend Janna from Vancouver Yarn put me in contact with a woman who had collected her dog, Raka's fur over a few years and wanted it spun into yarn. The dog was a German Shepard/Wolf cross, who unfortunately passed away not too long ago.
When we finally coordinated a time to meet up, I was give two small buckets of fur. Who would have known those small buckets would have turned into this:
2.48 lbs of dog fur
2ply Yarn (left 50/50 Dog fur/Shetland sheep, right 100% dog fur)
Knitted samples of both the 50/50 blend and 100% dog furThe yarn that is 100% dog fur is spun on my drop spindle. Dog fur is a very short staple and is hard to spin. That's why I have also done samples with the fur blended with sheep's wool. The blend helps hold the dog fur in to a yarn. Spinning on a drop spindle is a lot more time consuming, compared to a spinning wheel, but using this method I got a more consistent yarn thickness and I could also use 100% of Raka's fur.
The patron for this yarn is still in decision mode, so I am working on another commission which uses cut off thread from sewing as the base for yarn. This will be my third time spinning thrum yarn.
1 comment:
Hello; my name is Hillary Keegan. I am very eager to find someone to clean & spin my Old English Sheepdog's fur (Humphrey :) I have been collecting it for some while & its ready to be sent out. I'd be curious to hear feedback on mixing it with sheets fur as well to get more and thicker. If you could e-mail me directly at namaste@hillarykyoga.com that would be WONDERFUL. Thanks so much and look forward to hearing from you. Hill :)
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