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Monday, May 21, 2012

The Poodle Project

I recently accepted a custom spinning job which I have dubbed "The Poodle Project".

The customer sent over a pound of black poodle fur and about 3/4 of a pound of white poodle fur.

Here is how the fiber looked when I got it.


I decided to start with the black poodle fiber first. I carded it on my Ashford fine cloth hand crank drum carder into batts.

The batts didn't draft very well so I tried washing the fiber. It felts very easily! I finally settled on hand picking the fiber open and carding it on my Louet Jr roving carder, which has longer teeth on the cloth. I then hand carded the fiber that I pulled off the licker-in drum on the carder. The hand carded rolags spun the easiest of all the different ways I prepared the fiber.

Here are the finished skeins of yarn.


I was hoping for a DK weight yarn but ended up with a worsted weight. I was planning on more yardage but because of the way the fiber spun up, worsted weight was the lightest I could manage. It has gorgeous texture to it and is very soft. The customer wants a sweater/vest knitted or crocheted with this yarn - it should be gorgeous!

Later I'll share the white portion of The Poodle Project. I took more photos of the various steps involved in spinning it.

4 comments:

Summer at sparklecat.com said...

I am not a kitty who likes dogs and even I am impressed! Can you do this with kitty fur?

Lin said...

That is amazing! Can you imagine telling folks that your sweater is out of poodle fur???! COOL!

Split Rock Ranch said...

Sparkle: Thank you! And yes, you CAN do this with kitty fur! Dog fur is called "cheingora" and cat fur is called "chatgora". How cool is that?!

Lin: I know! Won't that be fun for her to be able to tell folks that her sweater is made out of her poodle fur?! I am SO honored that she trusts me with her precious fiber.

Pink said...

That looks soft, and has a great shine! I'm impressed that the poodle can be spun without blending in wool