Dog Hair/making something sentimental

Hi ya
de matt and get fibre as neat as you can now, then gently lay into hot suds
soak a while press down so's not to disturb the fibres. If you wash before
untangling or de-matting, you'll find you'll wash it in and it'll set
matted.

higz Cher


"GoldSeraph" wrote in message
...

Hello Tamar, Cher....Everyone!

Thought I'd drop in a line on how I'm doing. I started as you call it
*carding*. I must say that the fur is very matted but can easily be
dematted. I carded a few piles and I have to say *oh my God* it looks
beautiful! But as you say, Cher, when I tried to twist it, it untwists
so I will have to ply the fiber. I'm going to do this all myself, but I
can tell you that it will be a loving experience...every dematting,
etc.

I was wondering, should I dematt first then wash? I thought I'd card
it all first then wash it...then card it again. Which will go easy.

The colors are just beautiful, blacks brown and silvers and I'm very
happy that I saved her last haircut.

I'll keep you posted! Thanks everyone!

Y?;728777 Wrote:

Hi, this is what I would do...

1. Detangle by gently Combing

2. Wash by laying carefully in a bowl of hot suds...do not agitate,
hair
wont' felt up so much but it can still matt back up. so just press it
gently
but firmly down into the suds and soak a while...repeat if needed.

3. Rinse in same way without suds. Final rinse of conditioner.

4. Lay on towels to dry pressing it down to get out moisture

5. finally lay onto more towels and place somewhere warm to dry out

6. when completely dry...Re-comb to liven up the now flattened hair.


Not sure where to go to see the picture? Anyway, use ordinary dog
comb to
gently comb it out so that you have all the hairs lying in one
direction. A
needle padded dog brush will be ok if you are used to using this. Not
sure
what twinkie brushes are but am presuming these are the needle pad type

ones, like mini carders. This could make the hair a little bit static,
so
be prepared for this and to use a dog comb on it.

I'm guessing it will be all sort of grey and light browns in colour, so
you
could have it so that the brown is mainly at one end, and the grey at
the
other end.. Then if you spin it all from one length you will get a
varied
stripe effect, thus an experienced spinner will be able to look at it
and
advise you on the effects that could be gained from various ways of
spinning
this hair.

If you don't have a wheel or a spindle to spin with, you could do it by

rolling it out on your thigh, but how about getting someone who does
spinning to do this for you? If you go to your library you may find a
list
of local guild spinning members in your area who would be willing to do
this
for you, for a small fee, maybe to help a charity out??

However if

you want to have a go yourself, then buy or make a spindle and
drop spindle it, although I ought to say, that learning to spin on your

precious bit of hair may not be as easy as you think if you've never
done
it before, and you could end up messing up your prized bits of hair.
So be
prepared to loose some of it in trying..lol

Some types of dog hair will unspin it'self, as like human hair. A
sheeps
fleece single 'hair' strand,as with all hair strands... under a
microscope
has little tiles all the way down the shaft, but the difference with
the
sheep fleece strand, is that at the end of each tile they have little
curly
barbs, that hook into each of the other fleece strands and cling
together
and thus you get felt.

The tiles open up when in a detergent or acid such as vinegar, and take
in
the dye if being dyed, then conditioner smoothes all these tiles down
again
and locks inthe colour. I've never seen a dog hair shaft under the
microscope,so am thinking this doesn't have these barbs, as I've not
ever
seen a dog with felted fur..only matted fur, caused by bits of debris..

whereas sheeps fleece often have felted bits around its belly where
they lie
on the ground and move around. Friction and often wet ground, causes
this
felting process. So this also means that you can spin a fleece without
it
unspinning it'self, because these little barbs, which look like hooks
or
pigs tails in shape, cling to each other and hold the spun fiber
together..and you get spun singles (unplyed) yarn, good for
crocheting.

SO presuming the dog hair is much the same as human hair in this
respect you
may experience some ''fly away'' static, and thus a good conditioner
would
be a must to help control this. I suggest a hair conditioner for
flyaway
hair..
Maybe even a small amount of baby oil (or a solution of 3parts water
to
1part babyoil) on the fingers of the person spinning it.

Some people take to spinning really easily and find it like second
nature,
whilst others struggle to get the effect they want for ages and go
through
alot of fleece trying. Remember too, that you will need to ply this
hair,
and thus will end up with half or even a little less than what you have
now.
Being silky and much like human hair, I would think it would unspin
itself...try twisting your own hair and just leaving it.....so will
need to
be plyed.

HTH...higz Cher


"GoldSeraph" wrote in message
...-

Thankyou all, firstly for all your responses and great ideas! I have
no
experience at all with the preparation of the wool. Sassy's fur had
very little odor. Mostly she picked up the smell wherever she was
lying. She smelled like baby powder. I took a piccy of the fur so
you
all can see. Should I brush the fur out? Some of it has a little
matting to it. I was a dog groomer at one time and I'm good with
brushing it out . Can I use two twinkie brushes?

So I think I should detangle it before I wash it? After I wash it,
can
I spin it by hand? In other words, without a spinner?

You know I was also thinking I could make a nice teddybear out of her
fur...as there is just a shoebox full of it. Thanks, Shirley for
that
tip. She was a curly haired silky terrier.

I think once I see how much wool I can get, then I'll figure out what
to make.

Thankyou all, once again

Richard Eney;728419 Wrote:-
In article ,
GoldSeraph wrote:-

Hi,
I'm new. I have a question. My silky terrier canine has passed
away.

I was saving her hair to make a sentimental treasure from her.

I would like to make something like a scarf, hat, or any ideas would
be
appreciated. But I don't know how to prepare the hair/fur, i.e. like
washing it, spinning it. It's a bag full. Sassy's fur is not really
fur, it is considered hair as she was a non-shedding dog. The hair
is
about five inches in length.

Can anyone help me with this?-

First: there was (may still be) a book specifically about Knitting
With Dog Hair. Your library may be able to get it by Interlibrary
Loan.

Since you don't spin, maybe you could find a spinner by asking
at the local yarn shop if they know anyone who spins some of her
own yarn.

I am not a spinner but I've read some comments about spinning
and wool preparation. No doubt the spinners will be responding
to you soon.

If possible, it would be good to lay the hair out so that all
the cut ends are in the same direction. If you can get one of
those mesh bags sold for keeping socks together in the laundry,
you could carefully lay the sorted hair in it and then submerge
it in a wide pan (or tub) of hot water with dishwashing liquid.
Let it soak a while and then lift it (or just drain the water
if it's in the tub) and rinse in equally hot water. Then lay
it flat to dry.

A word of

warning:
Notice what it smells like when it's wet. That's what the finished
object will smell like if it gets wet! Some people have had unhappy
experiences when caught in the rain and suddenly their apparently
smell-free scarf smelled like wet dog. Some dogs don't smell bad
when wet, but it's up to you to decide once you smell it. If you'd
rather not wear it, then your keepsake project should be something
that will stay indoors and dry - perhaps a couch pillow.

If the hair is very silky and doesn't stick to itself well,
then it should be mixed with something that will help it stay
together, either wool or mohair. I think the mixing would be
done in the carding process, but it might be possible to lay
it on top of prepared wool and then make strips of the mix
(called "roving") to be spun.

If "non-sticky" and the hair is spun by itself, it will
shed everywhere, like rabbit fur. It may shed a bit anyway,
even if mixed with wool. In that case, you might consider using
it to needlepoint a pillow cover instead of knitting one; being
sewn through the openings in the canvas might help hold it in place.

=Tamar-


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GoldSeraph -


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GoldSeraph

"GoldSeraph" wrote in message

Thought I'd drop in a line on how I'm doing. I started as you call it
*carding*. I must say that the fur is very matted but can easily be
dematted. I carded a few piles and I have to say *oh my God* it looks
beautiful! But as you say, Cher, when I tried to twist it, it untwists
so I will have to ply the fiber.

The problem with dog hair is that it just that, a hair, and hair doesn't
have crimps or scales in it like wool so it needs to be spun tightly to hold
it together - this will in all likelihood mean a harsh, rather than a soft
yarn.

If you mix it with sheep's wool (which has crimps and scales that catch and
hold together well when spun) you don't have to spin it so tightly and you
get a good 'halo' effect from the dog hair. An only dog hair mix will
produce a yarn that doesn't have 'memory' and all good yarn needs to be able
to spring back into shape. Adding wool will give the yarn a 'memory'.

I have a whole lot of dog hair from a Marrema which I am trying to figure
out how to wash (it stinks horribly). It was given to my by a neighbour who
also gave me an alpaca fleece and I want to combine the 2 but also add wool
to improve the resultant yarn and knit something for the neighbour.

Anyway, the advice I've been given from my Spinners and Weavers Guild
experts has differed a bit from the research I've done (old copies of 'Spin
Off', Interweave Press) where I found several articles on using dog hair.

What I am going to do is to stuff a stocking bag full of the filthy, stinky
stuff and top it up with old stockings if it doesn't quite fill the bag up -
less movement within the bag reducing the chance of matting from handling)
put it in cold water overnight to thoroughly wet it, then put it in a bucket
of hot soapy water and leave it there till the water goes cold then repeat a
couple more times and then rinse it at least 3 times (by dunking and
leaving) and give it a final rinse in water to which I add a dash of white
vinegar (cuts any left over soap).

I'll then spread it on an old fly screen to dry and then card it with wool
and alpaca. I'm waiting for the raint to stop and the hot weather to
return - maybe by Xmas.

Fran