Dog Hair Felt.

 This week I finished an unusual order. Mind you not that unusual, since one of my last ones was a mushroom hat, hehe...
This time a lady rang me, she'd heard I can do creative stuff with fibre, and she wondered if I could make her some keepsakes with the combings of her 2 beloved husky dogs?
Well sure, I could have a play, to see if I could spin or felt it, I said.
How much fibre have you got? A rubbish bag full, she answered.
I nearly fell off my chair... I laughed; are you planning a full-size quilt?!

So I started playing with just a bread bag full; yes, it felted by itself, but not sufficiently strong. Therefore I would have to use 2 bottom layers of merino and the top all husky. One husky had grey hair and the other was more ginger. So I played with different background colours.

In case you are wondering about the doggy smell: The undercoat combings were pretty clean and super soft to start with. The felt gets absolutely drenched in soap suds and once the dog is out of the hair, it just smells of fresh fabric.
Your woolen jerseys don't smell of sheep either, do they? They probably smell of you...

She decided on 4 small wallhangings, with the edges kept wild and natural, and layered, with a simple design as focal point. I also spun some of the undercoat, and used the resulting thread to make a few simple stitches, and little loops on the back.

 I made 2 with hearts, although somewhat different from each other.
I wanted to add more stitching, but it felt finished, and I must always remember not to go overboard. KIS or Keep It Simple is the motto. The fibre had to be centre stage in this project.
Very pleasing results!

I'm not scared of the big bad husky ...