A Yarn

We visited New Zealand for a couple of months in 2018, and were able to connect with the owner of the factory that made my spinning wheel, purchased unfinished, in a kit, in the mid '80's.  I recently reconnected with the owner who had welcomed us in our visit, and I told her the story (in way too many words) of getting Jasper and making yarn out of the fleece and the dog that we so generously received from Jasper's former owner. She asked me if I'd be interested in writing an article about that incident for their newsletter. I was thrilled to do so. There has been so much generosity from so many folks in our lives. So I thought I'd share the article I wrote for her here.  It is necessarily many fewer words.

My Ashford Traveler Wheel and Jasper

 

A Yarn about a Dog and a Fleece

“If you take the dog, you can have the fleece”, the rancher said when I offered to buy the fleece. We had driven out of Boise to look at a working Border Collie, Jasper, who needed a new home because at age 9, he could no longer keep up with the younger dogs. I know the feeling. The fleece in question came to light when I mentioned that I was a hand-spinner. Of course, I would mention this to a guy who runs 1200 sheep. I hadn’t spun in years, but this fleece made my eyes light up. It was very deep brown, a merino cross (fine), long stapled, very greasy and full of vegetable matter. What potential.

Jasper, it turns out, has a very lush, fine undercoat. The sheep rancher, who also breeds his own Border Collies and Great Pyrenees dogs, said that one of the Great Pyrenees dogs may have slipped in unnoticed to visit Jasper’s Mom, and hence the undercoat. The rancher wouldn’t take our money for either treasure, so we sent him a complete set of the Walt Longmire books as a thank you. If you don't know Walt Longmire, he's a Western US icon.

The batt for spinning

After we gave Jasper the first bath of his life, I started brushing out his undercoat. It took a couple of weeks to get all of his undercoat released. It was a wonderful way to connect with a dog who had worked so hard all of his life. I have spun dog fur from previous dogs, so I knew his would be lovely. It’s very like spinning French Angora Rabbit fur. It adds softness, and eventually a halo to the items knitted from it.

 

2 and 3 ply yarn

 

 

 

 

 

There was an “Oh Dear” (maybe something stronger) when I realized what I had taken on. After skirting and sorting the wool, I washed it, and couldn’t help noticing how much vegetable matter (VM) it had in it. Oh. Dear. First the teasing, and removal of VM, mostly grass seeds. Then it was 4 times through the drum carder, removing VM during and between each run through. With each run through I also spread out the resulting batt and you guessed it; removed VM. On the last run through, I mixed in about ¼ Jasper fur by volume, by making 4 strips from the batt, spreading them out, spreading Jasper fur on top, and then folding the whole thing like an envelope. This is to avoid losing all the fur on the waste wheel of the carder. Each strip was treated the same way, building onto the first ones until I ended up with a mouthwatering thick batt. 

Jasper. The way home.

 

It’s not a perfect system, and I’m still picking out the occasional grass head while spinning. Still. There is pleasure in doing it, and the yarn is lovely; slightly unrefined, but well-structured with a lot of potential. Like Jasper.