Responsibility

Six months or so ago, a fellow spinner gave me a small bag of dog hair. She knew I was interested in all sorts of pet hair. This was from her daughter's Golden Doodle - Harry.

Now I've never been introduced to Harry, but he lives in our neighbourhood so I do see him out and about when he is being walked. He is a very handsome fellow. I'd even remarked, to my husband that I'd love to have a bit of his coat to spin, so I was pleasantly surprised to receive some. I didn't do much with the fibre until last week. Then sorting through a number of bags of donated pet hair I came upon Harry's and decided it was time to give it a go.

I hadn't really looked closely at it until then. It was gorgeous. The locks were long and crimped like sheep's wool and there was very little guard hair.

It spun up into a soft, butterscotch yarn with a lovely bloom or halo.

I was smitten with the yarn and so last week at our Guild meeting I mentioned it to my friend. I hinted - "if you ever get any more that you don't need......". Harry is a big dog. I imagined he would have lots of hair to go around, but my friend told me that what she had given me was Harry's puppy fur, from his first grooming. Now they keep him clipped much shorter.

Puppy fur! No wonder it is so lovely, but sadly there will be no more like it.

Knowing this has made me indecisive about what to make with this yarn. I feel as if it needs to be something very special. I started a small basket, but that didn't seem quite right, so I pulled it out. Then I made a scarf - or 1/2 a scarf before I had to admit that I didn't have enough yarn to finish it - so again, I ripped the scarf back. Now I'm considering this small clutch.

It will allow enough left over yarn for something else. Something that will do justice to a puppy's first clipping. Any suggestions?

Harry as a puppy

I'm back

Finally! I've been promising myself that come the New Year I'd get back to this blog - back to keeping a record of what I'm working on, the wonderful animals that supply fibre for my creations and other daily adventures.

This summer we took a trip to Alaska and the Yukon. Before setting off, I researched wool stores along our route. I wanted Qiviut - fibre from the undercoat of Muskox.

Qiviut is one of the softest and warmest fibres on earth. It is said to be even softer than cashmere. It is also pretty rare and thus expensive. It goes without saying that Muskox are not the sort of animals that one can brush on a regular basis, so the fibre must be gathered each spring from the ground and bushes that the Muskox rub against when they molt their winter coat.

I wasn't able to find any unspun Qiviut - although I bet I could have if my group had let me stop at the roadside shack that was advertising Muskox burgers. In Whitehorse I did manage to buy an ounce of lace weight yarn.

So my Christmas gift to myself, when all the Christmas knitting was finished and sent to family and friends was to make myself this lovely Qiviut shawlette.

Inspired, I also made one from dog hair. The fibre came from Shadow - a lovely old Golden Retriever. It isn't as quite as fine or soft as the Qiviut but it is still pretty luxurious.