Tuesday 25 September 2012

A "Fibrehound" fuzzy Molehill

I was extremely pleased when I saw this project pop up in my Ravelry recent pattern activity:


This is a Molehill shawl knitted with the hair of a lovely dog! I cannot say it better than Raveler Karen, aka luvmypony herself:

"This shawl is 100% Turk hair. Turk is my Border Collie x Norwegian Elkhound. He has a lovely, soft coat with little to no guard hairs. I brushed him and saved his hair for spinning. He’s the gift that keeps on giving. I often refer to him as my Fibrehound.

I intended to spin a fingering weight yarn but it came out slightly heavier than that. Then when I knitted with it, it BLOOMED! This shawl is thick and warm.

Fun project, just to see if it could be done and what would happen."

Turk
The shawl looks indeed lusciously warm! :) luvmypony has knitted a second Molehill with mohair. I do think the fuzzy yarns suit the pattern.

And this inevitably brings me to the little story of why I started to knit in the first place... I could simply not bear to throw away my cat's fuzz that I was combing out! thinking of what useful purpose to put it to, the obvious one is spinning it into yarn, then... knitting something with it? of course I didn't want to spoil the fuzz with my first attempts at either, so I endeavoured to, first learn how to knit, then eventually learn to spin. Learning to spin seemed the most daunting, and so I still have not gotten started! I started knitting in March 2009, designing in December 2010, and still the cat fuzz is stored safely away waiting for me to learn to spin and finally figure out what to knit with it! A very special, tiny stash of cat fuzz is that I have of my late cat Mino:

Mino in 2010

Mino was a short hair with very little fuzz, and he hated brushing, which he actually didn't need anyway, so I have a very little amount of it. I do have the greatest amount of fuzz from Iris, she is a longhair with loads and loads of fuzz! she doesn't like brushing very much, but she actually needs it :) and then of redhead Loki, who is also a shorthair but has a little more fuzz than Mino used to have, I also have a little amount. He doesn't mind brushing much, but he just cannot stay still for a second so it is difficult to!

Mino, Loki as a kitten and Iris in 2010

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