Photo description: 12×12 pink card stock with, clockwise, the words “Samoyed Sugar”, single spun and chain plied yarn on paper bobbins, crochet swatch, woven swatch, knit swatch and nålbound swatch, and shed fur
My fiber page for Samoyed dog fiber is what has me thinking hard on my page design. The precut design worked well for a while, but I now think each page needs its own layout and not be forced into sameness. This was my last precut page, so now the adventure begins anew.
Samoyed fur is one of my favorite fibers to spin. I combed all the fur for this spin, but I didn’t wash it until I blocked the swatches. It repels dirt, has almost no odor, and takes twist beautifully. There are guard hairs, but the bothersome ones pull out easily from the finished work without compromising structure.
As a Thank You to Sugar the Samoyed’s family for sharing Sugar’s fur for my fiber study, I sent them a crocheted heart and the remainder of the yarn.
Photo description: small hank of Samoyed yarn and a crocheted heart with a leather center with the name “Sugar”
I designed the leather heart using Adobe Illustrator, then cut it from vegetable tanned tooling leather. Having precision cut holes was awesome to make a blanket stitch around the edge. I then crocheted into the stitches using a single crochet in the back loop.
I am happy to report that the Samoyed dog yarn I spun does well in nålbinding. I was afraid the yarn wouldn’t felt, and my favorite way to join in yarn for nålbinding is to unravel a section on each end, trim the ends so I have two sections on one side and one on the other, build up twist in the short end, linearly braid the ends together, let the twist come back into the braided section, then rub it between my hands to lightly felt it. (Hm, that sounds more complicated than it is, I really need to do a blog post on it specifically.) It is a belt and suspenders and sticky tape way to join yarn, but it is strong, and almost undetectable, especially after incorporating it into the work.
Photo description: Nålbound tube using a Finnish 1+2 stitch and Samoyed three-ply yarnPhoto description: tube cut open to make a rectangular swatch
This is one of my favorite nålbinding stitches. It is easy to remember and I feel like I have a connection with my Finnish and Scandinavian DNA.
In May I received a mysterious fiber package. There was a tickle in the back of my brain, a shadow of a memory from the previous summer, when I talked with a woman who said her dog’s fur looked just like the Shetland sheep roving I was using for a spinning demonstration. She said she would send me some dog fur, and I gave her my address. I reached out to confirm, and yes! My mysterious package did contain the results of numerous brushings of her Samoyed dog, Sugar.
Photo description: Ziplock gallon bag full of Samoyed dog furPhoto description: Sugar the Samoyed photo from her owner
Samoyed dogs have a thick double coat that is usually white and naturally dirt repellant with very little smell. The fiber was very clean, and did not have much VM (vegetable matter), so I decided to comb and spin it straight from the bag, without washing or scouring. The staple length of the undercoat wool is about 2-3 inches, but the guard hairs can be much longer, I measured one guard hair at 9 inches long. I did not attempt to de-hair the wool.
Photo description: using wool combs to align the fibers for spinning on my Ashford Traveller spinning wheelPhoto description: Missy the dog is very interested in the smell of the dog wool, she can smell what I cannot!
The Samoyed wool was very easy to spin, and I was able to get a relatively consistent single. Combing produces more waste than carding, but the results are worth it. The waste fiber goes outside for the birds and squirrels as nesting material.
Photo description: single spun Samoyed dog wool
I chose to chain ply my singles to make a three ply yarn. The Samoyed wool also performed well in plying and I didn’t have any breakage.
Photo description: Samoyed dog wool three-ply yarn on the spinning wheel bobbin
I’m going to give the three ply yarn a gentle wash and hang it up to dry!
Critters and Craft 