Working with Your Dog’s Hair

Doggy hair (referred to as chiengora)can be spun into yarn, a lot like sheep’s wool, alpaca, or any other animal fiber. The method is the exact. Dust and oils can be washed out of the spun hair, so there is no “doggie odor.” Surprisingly, the spun yarn is hotter than wool, uncomplicated to care for, and has an angora-like fluffy texture. Until eventually the latest moments, most doggy entrepreneurs did not realize the magnificence of the colours and texture of their dog’s hair could be applied in the fashion of sheep’s wool.

It can be really as uncomplicated as brushing your puppy. There are some pointers to receiving the greatest and softest yarn probable.

When brushing your puppy, be confident to collect from the sections where the hair is the longest and softest. This is undercoat. Hair need to be 2 inches or for a longer period for best results. Hair ought to be clear and dry, with no grass or particles in it. Brush the hair from the longest, softest parts of the pet, saving only this hair. It is the undercoat you want, not the coarse top rated coat. Clippings will not perform perfectly for spinning with dogs that have double coats. There is as well a lot guard hair, and the yarn high quality will not be as nice as the pure undercoat.

Eliminate doggy hair from the brush and save it in a paper bag. Help save hair that is totally dry, and as clean up as feasible. (Do not endeavor to cleanse it once it is brushed off the doggy!) Bathe your doggy 1st, and brush when the hair is dry.

Paper allows the fiber to “breathe” and not be trapped with oils in a plastic bag. The very best way to retail outlet the hair from brushings, is in a paper sack, or cloth bag, these types of as a pillowcase. Even with what your mother or grandmother used to do, Under no circumstances USE MOTH BALLS! Moth balls incorporate a toxic chemical that is hazardous to breathe, and it is unattainable to take away the mothball smell from the hair.

How significantly do you save? It is dependent on what will be designed with the completed yarn. Most tiny initiatives use about 6 ounces of hair.

Reworking dog hair into yarn requires considerably time and treatment. First, the yarn is evaluated for spinning. Based on duration, and how the yarn will be utilised, I decide if the hair requirements mixing with a comfortable merino wool. Mixing minimizes shedding out, and creates a extra durable yarn. Even though most people today want 100% of their dog’s hair to be employed in a products, this is just not often feasible. The dog’s color can even now be found and the fluffy texture is however existing in the finished yarn.

From this point, the system is the exact as spinning sheep’s wool. I use a drum carder for the mixing system. This carder has steel teeth on it, that comb the wool, so the fibers are lined up and completely ready for spinning. The fiber is lifted off the drum carder, loosely rolled up, and established aside by the spinning wheel.

The yarn is spun into solitary strands on a spinning wheel, and then plied for toughness. The yarn is then cleaned by hand, making use of a gentle conditioning detergent or pet dog shampoo, and air dried. It is then wound into balls or skeins and is then ready to be knitted or crocheted into a scarf, hat, ornament, and many other points.

Since it is handcrafted, and personal, a chiengora gift can make a sentimental remembrance. It is better to get started gathering hair when your pet is healthy and younger. Persons have usually instructed me that it is comforting to have a tender, “pettable” scarf, hat, teddy bear, or other product made from their dog’s hair, and it provides back again content reminiscences.