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Tam with poodle
hair - it's the brown stripe next to the purple. |
SPINNING POODLE HAIR
Author: Donna Kaplan
I always wanted to work at a living museum as a spinster. A living
museum transports you to the past: it is a living, working
experience of life as it was in the early 1800s and 1900s. In bygone
times, a spinster was a female member of the household who went to
live and spin for families to earn her keep and a little spending
money. The spinster was usually an unmarried sister or daughter
which is where the term “spinster” got its meaning. Although I never
got to work at a living museum, I did manage to spin for a few
museums on “Spinning Wheel Showcase” days where I wore the costume
of the era and spun all day. It was great!
I learned to spin in 1973 at a time in history when the art of
spinning was mostly lost. Those who spun kept it a deep, dark secret
not to be shared. One day my husband saw an advertisement in the
newspaper for spinning lessons by the local Farmers Extension
Service. I took six lessons and was hooked. Carol, my instructor,
became a close friend. I purchased my first lamb from her and my
life has never been the same! Along with her sheep, Carol owned a
lovely Standard Poodle named Bumstead whose hair she also spun. I
thought that was darn neat but at the time had four Vizslas, a
short-coated Hungarian breed, so there was nothing for me to spin.
When my last Vizsla died, I went Standard Poodle hunting and have
never looked back. Some thirty-plus years later, I now live with
three Standard Poodles, Ten, River, and Whip, one Basenji (to keep
me humble), three parrots, my husband Marv, and grandson Kyle who is
attending college.
Because of this spinning habit (and it IS habit forming), I own four
spinning wheels: one antique wheel from Hungary, one newer wheel
from Holland, one from Canada, one from New Zealand, and about 50
pounds of fiber. Please don’t tell my husband!!
When you are a spinner, you get kind of crazy . . . or maybe you are
crazy then you learn to spin. Either way, as a spinner, you want to
try and spin anything you see. I have spun animal fibers such as
sheep, Angora rabbits, Angora goat, llama, alpaca, and Musk ox. I
have not tried buffalo or Scottish Highland cattle yet, but they are
on my list. See, I did say “crazy”! I have also spun plant fibers
such as cotton, flax, silk, milk weed, corn silk tassels, feathers,
and bamboo. And, of course, dog hair . . . which now does not seem
so weird does it?
Poodle hair is one of the nicest dog hairs to spin. The feel is
good. That’s a plus since spinning is all about feel and texture in
designing yarn. Poodle hair comes in many different colors and
shades: Poodle hair from any Poodle other than black can be dyed.
The dye slips off black Poodle hair; however, shades of grey and
silver dye nicely. The first heather yarns were made by dying the
wool of grey sheep. (Black sheep, like some black Poodles, have a
fading gene and start out black but fade to a light grey over time.)
The dye will take on the lighter hairs but not on the darker ones.
Anyone with parti-color Poodles and dogs in shades of brown or
apricot can create many interesting colors with a little dye. If you
mix parti colors together, you get tweed-like yarn. For example,
from a black/white parti, you can have white, black, and tweed
yarns. Not bad, right?
When spinning dog hair, you want to be sure it is from a clean
animal. We used to think you could go to a groom shop and get the
hair from off the floor. You can, but you cannot get the wet dog
smell out of it, and who wants a sweater that smells like wet dog?!
Of course, none of our own Poodles ever smell! Well, hardly ever.
When I want to spin Poodle hair, I let the hair on my Poodles grow
out about two to five inches. Puppy coat or a retiring show dog is
great as they both have lots of long neck hair. Once the hair has
grown out to the desired length, bathe the dog and blow it dry. I
spread an old sheet on the floor around the grooming table to catch
the hair. Be sure to clip off the hair in as few single strokes as
possible to keep the length of the clipped hairs even. When I’m done
clipping, I pick up the hair as carefully as possible so it stays
neat and then layer it in a cardboard box. You do not want to use
plastic as plastic sweats. However, you can put the fiber in a paper
bag and place that in a plastic container. For anyone thinking, “Oh,
no, I have tons of hair I’ve been saving in a plastic box,” don’t
panic. Just take it out and put it into a paper bag.
I like to blend my Poodle hair with sheep wool or alpaca, but you
can blend it with almost anything you like. I blend it for a few
reasons: I love the feel of sheep wool and alpaca is so soft and
creamy to the touch. It helps the slick Poodle hairs stay together
which makes spinning easier and gives you more yardage for your
projects. There is not that much hair on one dog; although, when
you’re brushing and blow drying a show coat or a long lamb cut, it
sure seems like there is a ton. Blending it with another fiber gives
you more yarn and interesting colors and textures as well.
You can spin your fiber on a spinning wheel or a drop spindle. Now
that you have spun your yarn, what do you do? Take the yarn off the
bobbin of the wheel or the end of your spindle and wind it into a
skein (a loose, elongated coil). It then needs to be washed in warm,
soapy water, rinsed, and rolled in a towel. While in the towel,
squeeze out all the extra water and hang the skein up to dry. You
will need to add a bit of weight at the bottom to “set the twist” as
it dries. Once it dries, you have your Poodle yarn. You can now dye,
knit, weave, and crochet it . . . or set it on a shelf and just
smile. I have done that last one a lot! I have also made hats,
trimmed vests, mittens, and sweaters. I even knitted a sweater with
a Poodle on it out of Poodle hair. You can do with it whatever your
mind can create. The sky is the limit. And, the best thing about
Poodle hair is that it just keeps growing and growing and growing –
so the supply is as endless as your design possibilities!
Pictures for this article were graciously donated by:
Lisa Grant
P.O. Box 1262
Berkeley, CA 94701
510-541-2903
email:kundrol@gmail.com
http://handspunhats.com/index.htm
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