How To Knit a Scarf out of Dog Hair

It occurred to me that perhaps the idea of a Bernese mountain dog scarf might appeal to some of you with less sensitive nostrils.

A woman named Betty Burian Kirk has a website that provides extensive information on how to collect, process, and spin dog hair into a lovely scarf or a knit hat. Ms. Kirk, for a modest fee, will be happy to produce the product for you. You can read all about it at her website, www.bbkirk.com. I provide here some relevant excerpts from her page to get you started.

From bbkirk.com:
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Tips on Using Dog Hair Yarn

Treat it and care for it as if it were fine wool. Weavers should take care if it is to be used as a warp. I advise the use of a warp sizing. Knit or crocheted dog hair is NOT elastic like wool. Gauge a garment the same as if you were using a cotton thread or yarn. Dog hair yarn items should be lined if it will be worn against the skin. Dog hair yarn does shed some at first. It is almost too warm to wear unless an open or lacy pattern is used. Many like it as an accent yarn used for trim or in design areas. This reduces your cost and prevents a garment from being too warm or heavy.

Don't cut your handspun yarn, break it. When joining two ends, overlap for several inches. Do not use knots. Handspun yarns have occasional thin areas. These are usually structurally sound. If they bother you or keep occurring in the same place, your can break the yarn and remove the thin section. Because of the thin areas, handspun yarn has an irregular yardage per pound. This must be taken into consideration when estimating how much yarn is needed for a project. Yarn breaking occurs occasionally. Because dog hair is silky and short, it does not hold together as well as wool. Breakage will happen more often when a tight tension is used in knitting etc.

When you are ready to knit or create with your dog hair garment, lay out all the yarn skeins and evaluate them. Some yarn may be thinner than other yarn. This is more likely to occur when you have had yarn spun on two separate occasions. You will need to design your piece accordingly, such as having the bulk of the piece in one type of yarn and the trim in the other yarn or the pattern in one type of yarn and the background in the other. If it is a block design, alternate blocks in the different size yarns.

Care Recommendations

Wash dog hair items in warm water with a mild liquid detergent such as Ivory dish detergent or dog shampoo. Avoid agitating the item in the water. Rinse in water the same temperature as that used with the detergent. Never let water run on the yarn or garment. Fill the basin with water and then add the garment. Gently squeeze excess water out and roll in a towel or extract the water in the spin cycle of the automatic washing machine. Be sure there is NO WATER BEING SPRAYED IN THE SPIN CYCLE. Dry flat and block if desired.

For more information, including an FAQ about dog hair yarn, click here.