CAT FUR SPINNING
I do not own dogs, I have two cats. I used to have a white Persian, I was the poor thing's third owner. His name was Gable, perhaps an earlier owner named him after Clark. He was rather neurotic and was a former Bronx resident. I recall that he had lived through a fire in the Bronx. (I used to live in the north Bronx so I felt a bit bonded with Gable on that part...). The person that I got him from had a child with allergies and needed to pass him on to a third home. Here is a portrait that my son R did when Gable was with us. The downturned mouth/jaw kind of says it all!!
But he was very sweet and declawed. I saved his fur and spun some yarn, using a puni rolags (this is not the time or place to define puni rolags, sometime I'll go there...), I spun it then I double plied it.
Gable is gone now, for several years, and I'm still not sure what to do with this bit of yarn, which is very soft. Perhaps knit a star to represent Gable's star in the firmament. He had a hard life and I hope that he was happy with us!
(My current cats are Domestic American Shorthairs and their fur is fairly useless on the spinning front, however they are great pets. Both are female and there is only the occasional territorial fight.)
DOG FUR SPINNING
A friend of mine from work acquired a Landseer (kind of like a Newfoundland but not quite) named "Mariska" a couple of years ago.
Here is Mariska, lookit that tail wagging...she KNOWS her photo is being taken!
Knowing that Mariska's fur had a relatively long staple (fiber speak for length), I jumped at the chance to spin it up. Jim has been diligent about bringing me bags of fur. It is at about 7 wpi and pretty makes a bulky yarn. I roughly separated the darker from the lighter fibers and spun them separately. Here's the darker yarn
I had an inspired idea...knit a dog from dog fur. I found a pattern, amazingly enough, for a Newfoundland dog. Shaped quite like a Landseer. After some spinning had happened I realized that the pattern was crocheted, not knit. I mentioned this to Jim who enthusiastically said "oh but my Mom crochets!"
Here is the pattern, results to follow...
