Dog fur spinning to beginning knitting ...

During the past 2 weeks I've been starting on knitting the fine dog fur but to date had not detailed what had happened so far. Over a number of years, I'd saved our longhaired GSD fur brushings & had a box of over 1kg of it!! After contacting a spinner in Devon last Autumn, I sent her 3 'collections' of the fur (light & dark see below) & collected it as spun hanks ready for knitting with.

Light fur

Dark fur

I proceeded to wind each of the hanks into skeins - appx 320 yards per skein.

Winding the light 'fur' - dark & medium skeins in background

I then began a tension square - the spinner had recommended quite large so that the yarn could retain a mohair/angora look to it.

Wound yarn in the 3 colours

On a visit to Knitting & Stitching Show last year, I came across a triangular lacy shawl pattern - ideal as a basis to start from. After an initial inspection of the pattern, I decided to knit a test sample in a 4ply yarn - mainly to look at the charted pattern plus ascertain a possible needle size. On first inspection of the pattern, there appeared to be an error & my test sample confirmed this. A decision to rewrite the instructions in long-hand would now have to occur!! & decided this should be done as I knitted using my GSD yarn. (By the way, at this stage I knitted on 2 needles.)

The pattern appeared to begin at the lower back edge - in the middle of the pointed edge. The lace pattern appeared to radiate from this point upwards - gradually increasing in size. I therefore decided to begin knitting with the darkest yarn using a 4mm needle. After working appx 20 rows, 2 noticeable facts became apparent: firstly the knitting began at the upper & longer edge & secondly the knitting was too firm.

Somewhat apprehensive of unpicking the yarn (in the event it broke or would not easily unpick), I slipped the stitches off the needle & proceed to unpick ... all went well. I started again on 5.5 mm needles & this time used the light yarn. This would mean the long inner neckline edge (from where the pattern began) would be the lightest colour & darkest would be at the hemline.

This is where the actual knitting now starts!!

Dog fur to shawl !! ...

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.

One of my special designer touches ! ...

One of my special "designer touches" is to stitch the wedding date into the dress - a nice easy finish with freehand machine embroidery! This was completed for the black wedding dress currently detailed here: Black wedding dress

Boning a bodice ...

A boned bodice is being made for the wedding dress - if you want to find out how it was done, please click boning a bodice. If you'd like to see more about the making of the actual dress that the bodice was made for, then click how the Halloween dress was made

Back waistcoat stitching: close-ups ...

First 2 stages

Finished 4 stages

Front waistcoat stitching: close-ups ...

First 2 stages

Finished 4 stages

Waistcoat back ...

Close-up of the first stages of embroidery for the waistcoat back - simple pre-programmed stitches using my 1970s Elna (a brilliant machine & wish they were still made!). I'll be starting the fronts next - again using these set of 3 stitches. When the fronts are finished, I can then go to the next stage(s).

Waistcoat pinning & tacking close-ups ...

 A fabric patchwork mosaic in the process:

Back pieces pinned

Back pieces tacked

Front pieces tacked