In April this year, we lost our German Shepherd (pictured left) & at 14 she'd lived a long life despite having several recent health issues as well as a skin condition for many years which involved having regular baths. For any non-pet owner - long-haired GSD's have double coats & are constantly loosing fur!!! With the extra baths, this generated a lot of fur which I collected over the time we had her.
On an experimental textile course several years ago, I came across references of spinning pet fur & over subsequent years tried to locate a local spinner. Unfortunately I had no luck but still continued to collect all our dog combings & by April I had a large cardboard box full. Now living in another part of the country, I decided to try again & find a spinner.
After sending samples to 2 different spinners, one retuned exactly what I had in mind - pictured right is her test swatch of my combings. It was perfect for what I had in mind.
I located my old 'wool winder' (see left) in readiness for when my fur was spun & skeined.
My next series of posts here will detail this 'knitting journey' as it slowly takes place in between my other activities.