Dog Hair Sweater - Twin Willows Farm

I love to spin my dog’s hair into wearable items for myself and my family. Over the years I’ve found that it works best when blended with wool. This produces a more stable, wearable yarn that doesn’t shed as bad as pure dog hair yarn does. Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn’t smell like a dog when it gets wet! Does your nice wool sweater smell like a sheep when it gets wet? Dog hair blend garments require the same hand washing that good wool does. It may take a little extra effort, but I think its well worth it!

The following sweater was created in 2003 from Thor, who passed away 3-5-05 at the age of 13. He will always be missed, but having this sweater is a comforting reminder of the wonderful years we had together.

Here are Thor, me, and Annie. Thor was an Elkhound/Lab cross and Annie a Border Leicester ewe. It took all three of us to create this sweater.

The first step is to collect the fibers. Annie was sheared, of course, but Thor was just brushed out. Dogs, unlike most sheep, have a double coat. The guard hairs are the longer, straighter and stiffer outer coat. The down is the softer, shorter, lighter colored undercoat. It is only the undercoat that we want for creating garments. The guard hairs would be too picky and uncomfortable to wear. So shearing dogs is not a good idea if you want to spin the hair. The spring shed is much preferable to the fall shed. Dogs shed more guard hair in the fall than in the spring.

The wool and dog hair were hand carded together to make spinning batts. I could have carded them more thoroughly, but I like to be able to see some distinct bits of dog hair and distinct bits of wool. Because Thor and Annie were not exactly the same color, some this also allows the different shades to come through.

The batts were then spun on my Majacraft Suzie spinning wheel. They are spun into a single thread, then two threads are spun, or plied, together to make a thicker and more stable yarn.

I didn’t actually have a “pattern” so this sweater just evolved on the knitting needles. I knew what I wanted the final measurements to be so I did a little math and measured as I went.

After I had the sweater completely knitted, I picked up some stitches in pure wool and knitted a hem. I charted out the words on some graph paper and knitted in the names and the date. This is truly a sweater to remember!

Things to remember when designing and making garments from dog hair or dog hair blends:

Use only brushed out undercoat
The undercoat should be a minimum of 1 ½” long (longer is better!)
Blending with wool will stabilize the yarn and help prevent shedding
Using a 2 ply yarn will help prevent shedding
Garments must be hand washed and left flat to dry
Garments will be much warmer than wool alone
Garments will be very fuzzy
Garments will felt (shrink) if not treated properly
Garments must be protected from moths

Last summer we got a St. Bernard… I can hardly WAIT for him to start shedding!

Twin Willows Farm - Making a Sweater from Dog Hair