What Is That You Are Wearing? Dog Hair Is Warmer Than Wool

When people see Laurie Moy they are curious to know if the hat she`s wearing is minx, alpaca or angora. Her response is no, it`s Collie! Dog hair is 80 percent warmer than wool.

The term in the knitting world is Chiengora, which is a combination of the French word for dog and angora, the soft fur of the rabbit. Dog-hair sweaters can sell for hundreds of dollars if you can get over all the misconceptions about this type of clothing. Moy is a member of the Handweavers Guild of Boulder and she collects hair from her three Collies as well as from a Great Pyrenees, Newfoundlands, Golden Retrievers, Samoyeds,  Huskies, and a few other breeds.

Moy states “I learned to spin so that I could spin dog hair. I love spinning dog hair.” A small hat will take around 4 ounces of spun hair and the work is very time-consuming. It takes about 3 hours to spin one spool and this is someone who is fast at it. The material itself is always free and plentiful. The Boulder Handweavers Guild is also one of the largest in the nation and has around 400 members.

Janet M. Hanley started spinning in the mid-1980`s  and states “Anything you can make with yarn, you can make with dog hair.” Some spinners combine dog hair with alpaca to make it less scratchy but Hanley says “Why spoil a good thing?”

Chiengora fibers date back to prehistoric Scandinavia and was the main fiber spun on the continent before the Spaniards introduced sheep. Hanley says dog hair is easier to spin than sheep`s wool and you can spin just as good on an expensive drop spindle or a spinning wheel.

Dogs hair comes in many colors and is warm because of it`s weight and the hollow fibers hold air well. The best hair, of course, is the undercoat or the down, not the guard hairs or top coat. One local woman, Debi Dodge, visits the local wolf sanctuary and collects the hair to make products that she sells and donates all the money back to the wolf center.

Source courtesy of  http://www.dailycamera.com

Image source  http://en.wikipedia.org

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