Spinning Husky Hair

[CarolL]

I have Siberian Huskies and I would like to learn how to spin their hair into yarn. Their undercoat is perfect for spinning. Could someone please direct me to a book or someone that could teach me how to do this. These dogs loose enough hair durning shedding season to warm the entire North America. (I'm tellling a bit of a tall tale there but there is a lot of fur). Besides something usefull out of all that hair, I would have something of my dogs even after they pass over the rainbow bridge.

Thank you,

[Ambersafghans]

I don't have any information on spinning, but that is a very interesting idea! My sister is looking to get dogs to breen and Siberian husky is one of the names that came up in her search. Any comments on the dog? I know they are beautiful! Well I hope you find the information you need. That is an idea I'll have to look into if she does get them!!!

 

 

Amber

[MaryPat]

This website has some interesting ideas and a history of dog hair. They do the spinning for you.

http://www.vipfibers.com/why-pet-fiber.htm

Amazon has a book called "Knitting with Dog Hair...." and if you click on it, you can see the table of contents where it tells how to collect and prepare it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312152906/103-5106940-1753408?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance

[CarolL]

Amber,

I can tell you to tell your sister to do not get this breed until you research it. Read everything you can get your hands on and take it to heart. Everything they say about this breed is true. 2 of my dogs are rescues and lived very bad lives before because someone did not take time to research the breed. I'm not saying it can not be done but most of the time people only want them because they are exotic looking with the blue eyes. Yes they are very pretty and very sweet but they are very hard to deal with. I tell people that they are the ADHD dogs of the dog world and I can say that with all honesty because I have a child who is severely ADHD. Please do not take me being harsh but instead being upfront with you or anyone that is considering this breed.

 

Carol

[xantha]

I recently spun up some siberian hair that a friend of mine sent me from her gorgeous Siberians. The undercoat has a fairly short staple length, so it required a lot of twist and it has a great halo because of how short it is.

 

Here's a quick picture of it on my wheel.

 

I think to make a more 'usable' yarn it really needs to be blended with something with a bit of a longer staple length. However this makes a nice laceweight yarn -- I am going to make my friend something with the bags of Winter and Kooler fluff I have to spin!

 

It does tend to shed a bit though if I had spun this a bit more fine and with a touch more twist I think it would be fine.

 

[and I agree with you about how ... hard-headed and smart they are. They tend to be a bit defiant, too. Not too unlike my boxer, just a lot fluffier! ]

 

If you want any more information about how I happened to spin it, let me know. It was a lot easier to spin than I expected, I pretty much just held a bit of it in my hand and spun from that.

 

And for the curious, pictures of the dogs:

 

Kooler

Winter

[jacqui]

Have a look back in this section there is a lot of advice on spinning dog hair and some links to click on.

[CarolL]

Thanks Jess,

Kooler and Winter are beautiful babies!! I love the smile on Winters face that is just precious.

My female dogs hair is shorter and would be harder to spin I think but my Dakota's undercoat is a bit longer and has more loft to it. I think loft would be the right word. It seems to be thicker. And you know when you have huskies how much hair you have from them. If I don't learn how to spin it I'm going to pay someone to spin enough for me to make myself a scarf. I would like enough to make a throw with it but I don't think I can afford that anytime soon.

Anyway, thank you for the information and for the great pictures of your sisters huskies.

[xantha]

I noticed that Kooler's (the female) fur was slightly shorter and it is a bit more difficult to spin. Winter (the male) undercoat is a bit longer and has more crimp, so it is a bit easier to spin.

 

I look forward to seeing what you spin up! (or have someone else spin for you, but I'm sure you can do it)

[Nadine]

I think it's great that you're going to spin your huskys fur! I'm in the process now of collecting my golden retrievers fur and learning to spin (hopefully!).