A totally normal British couple has made headlines by wearing sweaters, knitted out of the hair of their deceased pet dogs. Beth and Brian Willis have made two sweaters, one out of Kara, a Samoyed, and the other from Penny, a Swedish Lapphund.
I can't decide which one is hotter.
Says Mrs Willis in this exclusive article in the Peabody Award winning Daily Mail, "It is not actually a hair but a wool, which is why it is so good for clothes," and, "Apparently it is quite popular with lots of the people who breed long-haired dogs." You know what is even more popular? Not being a total freak.
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Come on, let your freak flag fly! Preferably one made from someone that has been your companion for the last decade or so.
Know what, that is a bit too weird.
You can almost see the guy's Grandpa Munster eyebrows behind the shades... Hell yeah, I'd wear one and my dear, departed dog would be mighty proud indeed to ride along whereever I went, even INSIDE the ice cream store!
I think it's sweet. Most spinners and weavers I know (not talking mutant mouse strains here) mix dog wool with sheep wool to make a yarn that's better for knitting or incorporation into weavings. One of my aunts used hair from their Shetland sheepdog in a couple of her weavings, and I also know a woman who used hair from her Siberian husky to spin yarn for knitting.
Perhaps I reside in the freak zone, but I don't think the Samoyed and Lapphund wool sweaters are weird at all. I just wouldn't wear them in the rain.
At least they're only wearing the wool. Cruella DeVille would never have stopped there.
My dog is a Pomeranian, so I'd have to start clipping him now and for the next couple of years to get enough fur for a proper sweater.
It's a little unusual but I don't really see anything wrong with it, it's not like they're going all Cruella DeVille on their dogs.
What's weird about it? It's a great way to remember a treasured pet.
Too bad they lacked a skilled East-European furr craftsman, to turn their loved Lapphund into a ear-flaps hat
So what's the big deal? I wear the wool of dead animals all the time -- presuming that the sheep ultimately responsible for my old sweaters are long gone.
Of course, MY sweaters aren't hideous....
You'd be surprised. Spinning magazines, in print and on line regularly have articles about how best to prepare and create "chiengora" ie, pet dog yarn. It's just like using sheeps wool, angora bunny fluff, alpaca, camel, qiviut, mohair, or even bear fiber.
Right now I'm spinning a yarn made of a mix of silk fibers, dog fiber, sheep wool, and a little synthetic fiber. It's all in natural beiges, browns, and blacks and creating quite a lovely yarn. I hope to use some good judgement in the final knitting of the yarn into a sweater though. I don't have any desire to actually look like the Sheltie for which the fiber mix was named.
A recent fiber arts magazine had a whole article on how to collect bear fiber right off the bear, prepare it and spin it. I don't know that I'm aiming to go that exotic for my next cardigan, though.
Frankly, silk is a lot more weird if you think about it.
A recent fiber arts magazine had a whole article on how to collect bear fiber right off the bear
Wow. That would make for a sweater with a good story behind it, assuming you survived.
People with large wooly shedding dogs frequently get a local spinner to make knitting yarn of the brushed out hair for mitts and scarves. It can be a very soft wool, and very pretty. I admit, though, if they actually shaved the dogs' cold corpses for the fur, that's a little weird.
I save the hair I brush from my Pomeranian to make a scarf to remember him from when he dies. The yarn is very soft and warm; just a tad more coarse than angora.
El Christador, I'd definitely recommend sticking with a black bear, not a grizzly! They had photos and instructions and all the info you could ever want on brushing and collecting the bear's fiber. I think I'll stick with angora bunnies, and if I get really exotic I'll use chinchilla.
Or how about a nice yak? I'd be afraid of the horns. http://bellingham.craigslist.org/grd/619333376.html
Remember - Dog fur, no matter how you spin it, will always smell like WET DAWG when it gets wet!