Spinning dogs wool

Some time ago, a colleague of mine asked me if I could spin some dogs wool into yarn. She wanted to make something out of the wool she saved from a dog that is no longer with her. Of course I happily accepted, who wouldn´t?! The spinning was quite a challenge, since the staple length of the hairs were only about 3-4 cm. I had to card it together with some lambs wool and that made the trick. I spun it with short forward draft and it actually went well as long as I took care to draft evenly.

One of many baskets of wool ready for spinning.

I have a couple of drop spindles, but I do most of my spinning on an Ashford Traveller wheel. I have had it for over a year now and am very happy with it.

I ended up with 59 grams and 96 meters of fairly soft and squishy yarn. Not the smoothest, since the hairs were so short, but I think it turned out nice.

I delivered the little skein to my colleague yesterday, and I think she was pleased. I know I am, and I have so many more spinning projects that I want to get going. In my somewhat extensive wool stash, there is some black lambs wool that spins up beautifully, that I want to make a whole sweater out of. There is "only" some washing and carding to be done first, since I purchased a whole fleece last autumn. More about that project later on!