Clothes made from a canine you know are much more special than clothes from an anonymous sheep
Several decades ago, the idea arose of writing a book to examine the ways in which dog hair could be used by knitters. Most people thought the concept was a few puppies short of a litter, if not downright crazy. The exceptions were experienced spinners (for whom dog hair was merely another nifty fiber to experiment with) and people of exceptional vision and imagination (nearly all of whom owned beloved dogs who shed exasperating quantities of fuzz).
The project began when I was spinning fluff from Ollie, a Great Pyrenees belonging to my friends Barbara Binswanger and Jim Charlton. Like many spinners, I already knew that dog fuzz could be spun – many books devoted to the craft of spinning carried a paltry brief paragraph on it, but the information was often sketchy and seemed like an afterthought, a footnote to more substantial sections on alpaca, vicuña and other exotic fibers. After collecting Ollie fuzz over time at each dinner date with Barb and Jim, I spent a weekend spinning, which yielded enough yarn to make nothing less than a sweater for Barb and a vest for Jim.
Continue reading… Clothes made from a canine you know are much more special than clothes from an anonymous sheepSeveral decades ago, the idea arose of writing a book to examine the ways in which dog hair could be used by knitters. Most people thought the concept was a few puppies short of a litter, if not downright crazy. The exceptions were experienced spinners (for whom dog hair was merely another nifty fiber to experiment with) and people of exceptional vision and imagination (nearly all of whom owned beloved dogs who shed exasperating quantities of fuzz).The project began when I was spinning fluff from Ollie, a Great Pyrenees belonging to my friends Barbara Binswanger and Jim Charlton. Like many spinners, I already knew that dog fuzz could be spun – many books devoted to the craft of spinning carried a paltry brief paragraph on it, but the information was often sketchy and seemed like an afterthought, a footnote to more substantial sections on alpaca, vicuña and other exotic fibers. After collecting Ollie fuzz over time at each dinner date with Barb and Jim, I spent a weekend spinning, which yielded enough yarn to make nothing less than a sweater for Barb and a vest for Jim. Continue reading… Well actually, Knitting, Dogs, Pets, Craft, Life and style, US news
