Knitting With Newfie

Dear Dog Lady,

I have a Newfoundland and just discovered "fur spinning" yesterday at a Newf event. What beautiful yarn the fur makes and, even more importantly, knitting something from my beloved Newf will surely last longer than she will. It will be a treasured remembrance. The fur was incredibly soft and warm and it is beautiful. Why don’t you try it?

Cheri, Manchester, N.H.

Cheri, thanks for sharing, but no thanks. For this knitter, it would be too weird to work with the hair of my dog. Recently, members of an Internet crafts circle began needling Dog Lady about this fiber stance. (See the original column that touched off the fury in the Ask Dog Lady archive: "Dog Fur, the New Alpaca" under "Sniffing Around.")

These diehard dog knitters claim sweaters, shawls, or afghans made from pet Afghans (or Bernese mountain dogs, or Newfoundlands, or whatever) can warm the body and mind. They echo your sentiment and say knitting a sweater from your dog’s fur can keep the animal literally close to you long after your pet has passed.

OK, fine, but how to spin your sweetie’s coat into yarn? The rabid rover knitters claim it’s easy to do once you get the knack. We can only admire their industriousness.

This reminds Dog Lady of eating succulent lamb offal in Paris. Ignorance was bliss because I couldn’t understand the waiter’s description. I merely pointed to a menu item for “d’agneau,” thinking anything “lamb” would be fine. Only after I consulted a French/English dictionary did my stomach take a tumble. I guess this is how you could induce me to don a sweater made from dog fur – if I didn’t know what it was and thought I was wearing cashmere.

Posted by Dog Lady at April 23, 2005 01:05 PM