This was the question asked by a concerned house guest last week.
By now, My Guy is more than accustomed to my strange ways with wool. Yarn hanging from the shower curtain or draped over radiators? A metal mixing bowl filled with fleece and suds sitting on the floor of the bathtub? Bits of fleece scattered on the rocker on the front porch, plastic wrapped roving in the top rack of the dish washer with the cups and bowls? He doesn’t even blink anymore; and, more importantly, he knows not to move anything resembling wool unless it’s cold.
Last week, while our musician friends were visiting, and in between rehearsals for our live recording, I managed to get a good amount of work done on some fiber projects. Part of what I did was go through my stash – and I found several ziplock bags of saved Chien fiber (i.e. dog hair) that I wanted to spin during the Iditarod coming up in a couple weeks. We’ve never remotely had any bug issues (knock on wood); but it’s dog fur, and I’m squitchy about anything potentially crawly in my yarn – even just stink bugs (ew). So even though I’d already washed it, dried it, and sealed it in plastic over a year ago: into the freezer it went, for good measure. Later this week, our cuddly fur-baby’s shed coat will be scoured again, dried, and blended with wool. All of this, I was more than happy to explain to our house guests when they found baggies of dog fur next to the ice cubes. They took it pretty well, really, all the while looking like they expected me to get to a punchline at any minute.
To those not part of the fiber world, spinning is probably strange enough. While dog hair yarn is becoming more and more commonplace inside the spinning circle – and is now even available to knitters in small commercially produced batches, although I can’t remember the name of the vendor I found at Rhinebeck – I doubt Chiengora clothing is going to hit the mainstream anytime soon. Still, I’m happy for the chance to get people wondering about what their clothes are made from, and where that material comes from. Even if I am cutting a record with those people, and they’re staying in my fiber festooned house. Even if they do stop using the frosted beer mugs from the freezer.