It has long been noted that it is the dog’s wool that is superior to sheep’s in many qualities. Those who do not throw away, but process the material obtained by combing their shaggy friend, act very wisely.
The effectiveness of this raw material has long been confirmed by traditional medicine.
In order to spin dog hair at home, you need to learn this skill constantly, acquiring the skill every day.
It’s wonderful when people know how to make things themselves from valuable medicinal yarn, while reaping great health benefits.
Healing qualities of yarn
Since ancient times, people have known how to properly spin dog hair. Everyone is well aware of the healing properties of yarn. It is widely used in the treatment of joint pain and colds. To obtain greater benefits, it is recommended to wear knitted products exclusively on a naked body.
Yarn in contact with the skin has an irritating effect and leads to blood flow to the sore spot. Gradually relief comes. A wide range of therapeutic and preventive effects of yarn on the human body have been noted.
But there are some peculiarities in how to spin dog hair.
How does dog breed affect wool quality?
Selecting wool for spinning requires taking into account certain factors. For example, the down of a Husky dog is hypoallergenic and odorless. It can be used for people suffering from allergies.
I would like to know how to spin dog hair at home and what breeds of long-haired dogs are best to use. For example:
- Collie is a Scottish Sheepdog.
- Sheltie.
- Samoyed dog.
While any dog's hair has been proven to be beneficial, the difference lies in the length of the fiber and its stiffness.
Dog or camel hair: which is better?
The wool of various animals, such as llamas and alpacas, is used to make warm items. But the main “suppliers” are still dogs and camels. There are no fundamental differences in them, although each wool has its pros and cons.
Camel wool is a little more expensive because, firstly, it is not as accessible a material as dog leather. Secondly, camel wool does not have a bad animal smell, and thirdly, products made from camel wool are not so difficult to care for, they can be washed in a machine, since the fiber is much stronger than dog wool.
Dog hair is a more accessible raw material option for us. We can safely say that this is a cheaper analogue of the camel one. Their only difference is durability and strength. Find out which insulation is best for winter clothing here.
How to choose wool for spinning
It is very important to distinguish between the outer coat (long and harsh) and the undercoat (down).
Down is obtained by combing dogs. To obtain high-quality and durable thread, it is spun by hand using a spindle.
It is advisable to use only dog fluff, but you can also use clipped hair. The resulting material should be well combed.
The longer the fibers, the better. It must be taken into account that in the end the yarn will be stiffer and prickly than that made from fluff.
When combing wool, you can immediately put it into different bags to figure out how to spin dog hair and with what tool. Place the soft fluff taken from the withers and back into one bag, and everything else into the other.
How to prepare material for spinning
How to spin dog hair at home? A difficult question for those who decided to do this for the first time.
The very first thing to do is to sort through and free the available material from debris and tangles. If there is still dirt left that cannot be removed, then it is better to wash it. To do this you need:
- Place the wool in a mesh bag designed for washing woolen items.
- Place in a container with powder; you can use liquid detergent.
- Pour warm water for thirty minutes.
- Remove wool from container.
- Rinse with plenty of water.
- Hang bags to drain water without squeezing.
- Lay the material out to dry for at least two days.
After this treatment, the wool is combed well. Does not smell of dirt. She is good at teasing with combs and carders.
Preparing for washing
Hair combed from a dog can contain a lot of different debris, especially if the dog lived on the street or in an enclosure. Therefore, at the first stage, you need to manually select large, adhering debris: combed tangles, stuck burdock sticks, plant branches, pieces of dirt, etc.
At the second stage, the wool needs to be placed in special bags for washing delicate items (can be purchased in the hardware department), old nylon tights, or stockings. It is better to tie stockings and tights with a knot on both sides. It is important not to compact the raw material tightly, otherwise it will not wash well (put no more than 100-120 grams of wool into one bag or stocking).
How to comb wool
For easy and high-quality spinning, the dog’s undercoat must be combed out on time and well. Thorough brushing should be done no more than twice a week. The accumulated wool must be pulled manually before spinning, or hand combs are used for this.
In small portions, the wool is placed on one comb and combed with the other comb in counter movements until an air lump is formed. It is necessary to repeat this several times, ensuring that the wool becomes uniform. Then remove the soft fluffy lump from your hair. The resulting lumps are collected into one large tow. Tows are made in different sizes, depending on your convenience.
The combing process will go faster if you use a drum carder.
Looking at the resulting air tow, it becomes clear how to spin dog hair.
What spinning methods are used at home?
Depending on the tool used for spinning, you will need to attach a tow.
There are several methods for spinning dog hair:
- Hand spinning without the use of tools.
- Manually using a spindle and a wooden spinning wheel.
- Using a mechanical spinning wheel with a pedal.
- Using an electric spinning wheel.
How to spin dog hair using at least one of these methods?
It's best to start with hand spinning. This method will help you clearly see how the thread is twisted, how many turns you need to make to get even yarn of a certain thickness and strength.
What types of spinning can be used at home?
Once the dog's hair has been combed and the roving is ready for spinning, you can begin to create yarn.
According to the technique of execution, yarn can be divided into three types:
- Thread based.
- Single.
- Twisted.
Warp spinning is used when making yarn from short fibers. For this you can use cotton or silk thread. During spinning, the fluff curls around the warp, and not vice versa. Care must be taken to ensure that the opposite does not happen. If the yarn is too twisted, you can try to fix it. Rewind the resulting thread several times into balls, back and forth.
You can rewind on a spinning wheel in the opposite direction. It is recognized that spinning with a warp is much easier than without using an additional thread.
Spinning dog hair without warp is used when making yarn from hair from long-haired dog breeds. A single thread is made by pulling the fiber from the tow and twisting it. Such a thread need not be twisted.
To twist means to twist two strands into one.
You can mix strands obtained from different dogs, as long as they match in thickness and preferably in softness.
Knitted yarn differs in volume and looks smoother in a knitted fabric.
A simple way to spin without a spinning wheel
If you don’t have a spinning wheel at home, but you have dog hair, and you really want to spin it, then the question certainly arises of how to spin dog hair without a spinning wheel. There is a way out, you need to take the tow and attach it to something.
For example, tie a skein of wool to a stick or to the back of a chair and try spinning. To do this, you need to slowly pull out a thin thread of equal thickness from the tow and constantly twist it, otherwise it may break. Once you have obtained the yarn of the required length, thickness and twist, you need to wind it onto a spindle. Then continue in the same order. When the ball has become approximately the size of a fist, the thread should be cut off.
You don't have to tie the tow to the chair.
Before spinning dog hair with a spindle, you need to take a ball of fluff in your left hand. With your right hand, pull the thread out of the ball while twisting it. In this case, the spindle should be on a plate or some kind of bowl with a flat bottom without a recess. The twisting of the strand occurs quickly. If the thread was spun thin, and suddenly a thickening appears, then it needs to be untwisted and straightened.
Next, spin about fifty centimeters and wind the resulting yarn onto a spindle. Tie the thread with a fixing knot at the top of the spindle. In this way, continue to pull and twist the thread until the spinning tow runs out.
When you don’t know how to learn how to spin dog hair with a spindle, you can try using a flat wooden stick or pencil. All other actions are the same. Pull the thread from the tow, twist it and wind it around the middle of a pencil or stick.
Spinning on a spinning wheel
The best known version is my grandmother's version of spinning dog hair by hand at home. The spinning wheel is placed on a stable surface, such as a stool or bench.
A hand spinning wheel consists of a vertical part, on which the tow is attached, and a horizontal part (bottom), where the spinner sits.
After you have fixed the fluff on the spinning wheel, you need to pick up the spindle. It is best to attach the fluff to the spinning wheel with an elastic band. Tie a cotton thread to the middle part of the spindle and wind it clockwise. The tow should be on the left side of the hand. They begin to pull the fibers out of the tow with three fingers of the left hand. Connect the cotton thread to the strand and at the same time rotate the spindle clockwise. Thus, the thread and strand were spliced. Secure the twisted strand at the top of the spindle with a locking knot so that the thread does not fall off when rotating. Continue to rotate with your right hand, slowly releasing a small amount of fluff from the tow with your left hand for twisting. At the end of spinning, rewind the thread from the spindle into a ball.
For knitting, double-ply yarn is used. To do this, you need to connect two threads and twist them.
Spinning dog hair by hand is quite difficult and time-consuming. In order to obtain high-quality thread, you need to have spinning experience. Therefore, to help the spinner, a spinning wheel with a wheel was invented, which has survived to this day.
What you will need - available materials
The easiest way is to spin by hand using a spinning wheel and spindle. To work, you need to prepare some tools and materials.
spinning wheel
A hand spinning wheel is a wooden device for making thread. There are two types of tools:
- a composite product that has vertical and horizontal parts;
- a single spinning wheel was made from the trunk or root of a tree.
Today, young professionals and even connoisseurs of antiquity give their preference to a mechanical spinning wheel.
Cost – 3500 rub. Regardless of the type of hand spinning wheel, in the end it has an unchanged design. The horizontal lower segment is used for spinning. This place is called “the bottom”. The vertical part of the working tool includes 2 elements: shovels or paddles, necks or legs. The craftswomen had to work on this type of spinning wheel for quite a long time to obtain the required amount of thread.
Spindle
A spindle is a product made from a cut tree. Usually the instrument is made of birch. However, you can use other wood, which is cheaper. The spindle manufacturing process consists of several stages:
- the cut tree needs to be sawed crosswise, after which bars of different sizes must be cut along the trunk, taking into account the size of the spindle that needs to be created;
- the bars must be dried in an oven for 24 hours;
- the edges of the product are rounded after drying, using a sharp knife for this purpose;
- using a machine, they give the product its final appearance.
Machines are also made independently from wood. The production of such products is considered the cheapest, for this reason the spindle has become an affordable working material for most peasant families.
Wool
Tow (the second name for wool) must first be prepared for the spinning process. The material is sorted out, debris is removed and combing begins. For this purpose, special combs are used. The procedure looks like this: put a little wool on one comb and comb it with the other. The manipulation must be carried out until the tow ends up on the same comb.
The readiness of the wool is determined by individual hairs, which should be easily pulled out.
How to choose
When you plan to get yarn, you need to properly collect and then sort the wool. Fold the softest one separately, separate the coarser one. It should be stored in boxes or paper bags or fabric bags. In a plastic container, wool stops breathing, which is why it quickly cakes. It is allowed to store the product in any room, as long as it is not exposed to sunlight.
It is better to spin combed wool. It cannot be saved for years. Be sure to put anti-moth products in the container. It is recommended to sort the material by color so that the yarn is uniform. To ensure an even color before spinning, all yarn must be combed several times or sorted to obtain a smooth tone transition - from the lightest to the darkest shade of color.
The presence and amount of awn in the undercoat affects the softness of the final yarn.
The awning must only be selected manually. Neither drums nor carder brushes will remove it completely - this is the most labor-intensive and time-consuming process. To get fluffy and soft yarn from merino wool, and even a thin one, you will have to scrupulously select all the spine from the fluff. Because of this, we recommend immediately organizing the process of sorting and removing the spine.
Short wool can also be spun, although the likelihood of fluff falling off over time remains high. It is better to add a few long fibers to it when combing it or spin it using half-wool or thin wool thread as a base.
Immediately before spinning, it is necessary to wash the harvested wool. It takes more than a day to dry - this must be taken into account. When the material is completely dry, you need to comb it again several times and select the spine. These particles are heavier than fluff, so the weight of the finished product depends on the quality of the bulkhead.
Washing together with the selection of the awns reduces the total weight by a third.
Combs
The comb spinning technique is suitable if the fibers are long enough. This yarn is the smoothest, thinnest, and very dense. As a result, the yarn becomes durable.
Wooden self-spinning wheel helps you spin quickly
A mechanical self-spinning wheel with a foot drive has become a home assistant for women. The spinner no longer turns the spindle, it simply does not exist. Pressing the pedal with your foot sets the spinning wheel in motion.
The tow is attached to a stick or spinning wheel. The cotton thread is attached to the spool of a spinning wheel and passed through the hooks of the bobbin. It must be combined with a strand of tow. Using your left hand, pull out a small strip of wool from the tow and place it on a cotton thread. At the same time, they begin to rotate the spinning wheel by pressing the pedal with their foot. The process of twisting the thread and winding it onto the spool begins. At this moment you need to look to see if the thread is too twisted.
If this happens, you need to manually pull the thread and unwind it in the opposite direction. The speed of the spinning wheel is controlled by a pedal. The more often you press the pedal, the higher the speed of rotation of the wheel.
The thread tension is regulated by belts that are stretched over the wheel housings and the pulley. The spinning process is fast. Spinning dog hair, like any other hair, on a mechanical spinning wheel is not very easy; it requires certain skills.
Electric spinning wheel to help needlewomen
A household electric spinning wheel is a simple technique and easy to learn how to use. Working on it does not require significant physical effort. Each electric spinning wheel has a speed switch, so beginner spinners can learn to spin at low speed.
Russian manufacturers offer several models of electric spinning wheels. The principle of their operation is similar, but there are slight design differences. The household electric spinning wheel is a compact machine, the basis of which is the twisting and winding mechanism. It consists of a body and a reel on which the thread is wound and an electric motor with a tension device. There are handles for turning on the engine and changing gears.
The spinning wheel is easy to use, does not require special training, and you can master the basics of spinning in a short time. It comes with an instruction manual. Before work, you need to study it well and follow all the recommendations, and then the device will last for many years.
Electric spinning wheels spin well and quickly
The invention of the electric spinning wheel has several advantages. This is compactness and speed. Experts say that working on it requires virtually no skills. The principle of forming a thread from wool is the same for spinning wheels - the strand is pulled out of the tow, twisted and wound into a ball.
Then the finished yarn must be twisted. If the spinning wheel does not have such a function, then you can twist it manually on a spindle.
The photo shows what this device looks like. We spin dog hair on an electric spinning wheel in the same way as in other cases - separating small pieces of combed wool and twisting them.
On an electric spinning wheel
Electric spinning wheels simplify and speed up the spinning process the most. With them
In use, it is possible to set different speed and quality modes for thread twisting.
Working on such devices allows you not to be distracted by winding, since it is performed automatically. As a result of this, the spinner has the ability to wind the thread onto the warp with both hands at once.
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How to wash finished yarn
Tie the rewound yarn in several places and put it in the wash:
- Place the skein in a container with warm water and liquid detergent.
- You need to wash it carefully.
- Rinse in water with hair balm.
- The last thorough rinse is done in a large amount of water with the addition of a few drops of essential oil.
There is no need to wring out the wool. Hang the skein on clean gauze or on a clothesline. As the coat dries, it takes on a wavy appearance. In order for the yarn to straighten well, it must be pulled back with a weight. Gradually, weight can be added to make the thread smoother.
To ensure you have enough hair, collect it every time you brush your dog. You can knit warm clothes for loved ones with your own hands, since this wool is also medicinal. The pleasure from the work and the resulting handmade products will last a long time. The best thing is to leave the pet's fluff and learn the material, how to spin yarn from dog hair.
Recommendations for caring for yarn
Even if you should try to wear ordinary things carefully, then you need to treat things made of dog fur with special attention, as they are easy to spoil.
How to wash
The yarn itself or finished products must be washed delicately: hand wash exclusively in warm water up to 30 degrees with the addition of powder or gel for washing down products. You need to wash without mechanical impact, roughly speaking, rinse in soapy water, do not twist or wring out. After washing, rinse several times in clean water at room temperature. You also need to dry yarn or things carefully - lay them out on a flat surface and leave them to dry completely for 2-3 days at room temperature. Afterwards, if necessary, comb the product a little with the comb that was used to comb it initially.
Items made from dog yarn cannot be machine washed, bleached, ironed, wringed, twisted or boiled. With proper care, the product will last you longer.
