Broken Leg

Rosemary has a broken leg. My spinning wheel, a Kromski Minstrel, is named Rosemary after Rosemary Clooney. (Think the "Minstrel Number" from White Christmas...) Anyway, the aforementioned big puppy sent my wheel @$$ over tea kettle and she broke one of her footmen. %sigh%. The good folks at Halcyon Yarn have assured me that I would have my part in less than a week, but I am still sad as can be as production on the Samoyed/Alpaca yarn has halted.

But in other news, I borrowed Kerri's Louet and spun a blend of 50% Newfoundland/25% Red Wool/25% White Wool... It is a wild mix. I was poking around in the stash looking for something interesting to blend with the newf fuzz and came up with some 1 oz balls of wool that came with one of my spindles. I just weighed it out and carded it together. Little thought was given to how blended it was; I just threw it on the handcards in roughly even proportions of wool to newf fuzz. The result is a DK weight 2/ply for a total of about 200 yards... See...

I've just got to come up with a project for it. I am thinking that a simple roll brim hat might be just the ticket to show off the heathery goodness...

Fuzzy Magic

I have been asked to give a demonstration of Spinning Dog Fur at Camp this year and I have managed to collect undercoat fluff from 5 or 6 breeds other than Newfs to use as samples. Thank you again to the Spin-List/Spin-Sales folks who volunteered the samples. I have been having a ball working my way thru them.

Dog fur is a lot like angora... lots of halo, very fluffy and so fine that it is a little fragile. Alone it needs to be spun so fine and tight that you end up taking alot of the silkiness and softness away. I have found that if it is blended with something else, it makes a much superior yarn. I typically blend it on my hand cards at a ratio of about 50/50. Most often I like a soft, crimpy lamb's wool, but alpaca and silk make a good pairing as well. This is Sheltie mixed with some fawn Corriedale lamb fleece I had in my stash. I think it turned out pretty well... if I do say so myself. It's a 2-ply DK weight.



The next breed I have chosen to work with is Samoyed which I blended with some white alpaca roving... It is like spinning clouds. It is so fine and fluffy that it ended up in my nose and mouth and EVERYWHERE in the family room.



Here it is on the wheel... I was aiming for something that would end up as a sport weight 2 ply, but it's probably going to end up more like fingering weight unless I make it a 3 ply. One of these days I will be more in command of how thick I spin. In any case, I think it will make a really nice lacy scarf...



I am hoping to get it plied and ready to knit this weekend. I'll post more when I do.

One Big Puppy

My next introduction is to the puppy... This is Eli; his AKC registered name is Mtnviews Life Goes On. There is a story in his name, but that's for another day. He is 10 months old, 130 lbs, and full of himself. He had his first big boy dog show this weekend. It sort of scares me when Newfoundland people look at him and tell me he is going to be a big boy. His father is 175lbs. But I don't think he's going to be that big. We shall see.



The best I can say about his entry into his show career is that no one got hurt. He moved very well, but he won't have any part of my moving his feet. We are going to have to teach him to free stack, but that will take some time.

As you might have guessed, I can't knit for a newfoundland so there isn't any knitting content today.

Introduction of the Canines...

As this blog is Knitting in the Dog Run... An introduction to the dogs is certainly in order. I am going to do this in a few installments; one for each of the three of them. First up is Jasper.... aka Weenie... as in teeny-weenie... He is a 17 lb dog living in a world of giants.



He is a 3 year old Corgi/Jack Russell cross that we adopted from a local rescue group. Jasper is our agility dog. He is smart and quick and unafraid of anything. He is also the only dog I can knit for. He now has a wardrobe of handspun wool sweaters. It is unfortunate that a skinny little dog has to endure Maine winters. This is Jasper in his Gap dancer sweater....



It made from some chocolate tunis fleece I bought to play with and some grey corriedale. Both were spun very early in my spinning and are a little lumpy in a two-ply light sport weight. The sweater is of my own design knit on size 4 circulars. See I actually managed to work in some spinning/knitting content.

More Tales of the Downy Fleece

I was a busy bee this weekend. I spun up a skein of the cute rolags. And, I finally got my self together to show you the condition of the original fleece after it was washed anyway...



There is a little grass/hay but it's the stuff that just falls out as you process it. That I can handle. There is the issue of the staining,but it just blends up into those cute rolags and yarn...



The final skein is somewhere between a DK and a heavy fingering weight two-ply. I think it will make superb socks... My workhorse wheel is a Kromski Minstrel, but I plied this on Kerri's Louet to see how I liked working with the GIANT bobbins. I have to say that the jury is still out. I will use it again to see how it goes. The twist is a little uneven; I had trouble getting the right balance in tension, but I am guessing that is a user error rather than anything having to do with the wheel.