Doggie Fiber Love

We read about Raykun's love for her dog Sandy in the post yesterday.

Sandy is a Cocker Spaniel with a pretty good hair length. Every couple of months, Sandy gets a hair cut. It is too tempting for Betty; whenever she sees something longer than two or three inches, she sees something for the spinning wheel.

Raykun saved a box of Sandy's hair; a small amount is shown at the left of the first photo. Since it is hair, not wool, the ability to stick together after spinning is not as good. Betty uses a small amount of silk blend, shown at the right of the first photo, to blend with Sandy's hair to make it more suitable for spinning. Angora wool would have been a good blending source but Raykun is allergic to rabbits.

In the second photo, dog hair and the small amount of silk blend are being carded together by using two slicker brushes. It is a very slow process, especially comparing to Angora wool that could be spun directly from the rabbit.

In the third photo, the carded dog hair has been spun into single ply yarn on the bobbin.

In the last photo, the single ply yarn is plied with a binding thread and made into a skein. This skein weighs about 5.5 oz with 126 yards in length.

The feel of the dog yarn is very similar to mohair, a little on the coarse side and with a lot of sheen.