Yip! Yap! Yarn? This fiber artist puts a new spin on shedding pets
Walk into Doreen A. Kelly’s home, and it is clear she is an animal-lover. Two collies and an angora rabbit make themselves at home in the great room. Photographs, portraits and figurines of dogs and horses adorn the walls and shelves.
And Kelly, a fiber artisan, sits at her spinning wheel working on a project: Hand-spinning dog hair into yarn.
Yes, that’s right. Kelly makes it her business to take the pet hair brushed out and collected by owners or groomers, hand-spin it into yarn and then create mittens, hats, scarves, pillows and other keepsake items. Or customers can have just the yarn returned to them.
On this particular day, Kelly is working with white hair from a customer’s beloved Samoyed. Eventually, it will become a shawl.
Bernese mountain dogs, Australian shepherds, poodles, golden retrievers and collies are other good furry choices – but not the only ones.
“I have spun probably 25 to 30 different breeds,” said Kelly, who shares her craft at events such as the Erie County SPCA’s recent Paws in the Park fundraiser and the Pet Expo, from 11 a. m. to 5 p. m. Saturday at McKinley Mall.
And while some people’s response is “Ewwwwwwwwww,” many think the idea is neat, Kelly said.
Including some other fiber fanatics.
Elaine Polvinen, professor/coordinator for the Fashion Textile
Technology program at Buffalo State College, years ago experimented with spinning dog hair.
“At the time back in the ’70s I was in my ‘spinning phase.’ I spun wool, mohair, alpaca and was experimenting with natural dyes and spinning boucles and nubby yarn as well as smooth,” Polvinen said.
“A woman that heard about my spinning called me and inquired if I would spin her Husky dog’s hair into yarn. At first I thought she was loony, but once I saw it, it was a long easy-to-spin fiber. It spun up beautifully. So, of course, I started eyeing my own dog,” she said.
Kelly tells customers that the pet hair should be about 1z to 2 inches long, preferably from a long-hair dog or cat.
Her Web site — www.CustomDogHairSpinning.com — has brought her orders from all over the country. She spins at home, on a traditional, portable spinning wheel. In the summer, she works on the wrap-around porch of the West Seneca home she shares with her husband. Another favorite spot is by the large expanse of glass overlooking their four-acre property. Come winter, she moves to a spot next to the fireplace. She often spins six to eight hours a day.
“It’s mesmerizing,” said Kelly, who listens to books on tape while she spins.
The fur she uses is the undercoat — the hair that comes out during grooming.
And although she can work with clipped hair—from a poodle, for example — “brushed-out hair is softer than clipped,” she said.
After spinning single strands of yarn, she plies two strands together to make the yarn stronger for knitting, crocheting or weaving.
She tells customers to store the dog hair they are collecting in breathable bags, such as paper grocery bags or cotton pillowcases. And clip the top with a clothespin.
And no, she said, the yarn will not smell when it gets wet. Kelly, who washes the yarn after it is spun, said that the wet dog smell with which people are familiar comes from the oil in the animal’s skin. Once the dog hair (called chiengora) is removed and the yarn washed, there’s no smell, she explained.
Pet hair is more difficult to spin than wool, said Kelly, a self-taught spinner.
“Dog hair is shiny, smooth and slippery. Wool is not as slippery,” she said.
And cat hair is finer and even softer. Most dog and cat hair has a halo similar to mohair, Kelly said.
Among the items she creates from pet hair: flower pin ($20); hat ($125); coin purse ($50); accent pillow ($150); and a 24-by- 65-inch shawl ($500). The shawl requires two full grocery bags of hair; a scarf, just one, and it does not even have to be full, Kelly said.
A lifelong crafter, Kelly said she has found her niche by combining her love of spinning with her love of animals.
“It brings such joy to everybody,” Kelly said.
Her own two collies — Tilly, 5, and Skye, 4 — have plenty of hair to share. Kelly made herself a scarf from Tilly’s hair, for example.
Yet the art of spinning dog hair is hardly new. It dates backs hundred of years, Kelly said.
In the book “Knitting With Dog Hair,” author Kendall Crolius points out that spinning dog hair was once quite common among tribes of the Pacific Northwest, for example.
In more recent times, another dog-hair spinning expert visited Estonia, Crolius notes, and discovered a woman selling dog-hair sweaters. According to the local folklore, dog hair was believed to relieve symptoms of arthritis and rheumatism.
Kelly, also familiar with the history, points out a final paw-note about dog hair: “It is eight times warmer than wool; I wouldn’t want an entire sweater out of it,” she said.
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