Before and After...

For your info, I'm typing this with Quinn squidged under my desk between me in my chair and my hands on the laptop. She's freaked out about something, and I can't figure it out.

So. "Before and After." (insert drumroll here....) The dog yarn is DONE. Well, it's spun. This is what it looked like when I dropped it off: 5 grocery bags in the  back of my truck. I have to find the picture; it's somewhere - either on my phone or one of 2 cameras...

5-dog-yarn

This is what it looks like now:

You can see the tans, a bit of red and the grey more than you can see any black. Though one husky was black/silver (my Topaz) and the Elkhounds have black on their guard hairs. This is lots and LOTS of undercoat, which is mainly tan and white.  And while River was red, as she grew older and as Cushing's took away almost 100% of her guard hair, the undercoat got more tan.

I'm going to make this into a shawl at least; perhaps a scarf or cowl, too. There's over 1,000 yards of this. And yes, it's the most expensive yarn I've ever purchased. It's a "rare" fiber - nobody's likely to have this mix! It's a little rough, but I have a paper that says it'll "halo" after I wash it. I love the colors.

This is 100% dog hair. No wool mixed in, which does concern me a bit,  because I'm not sure that this is something I'd make up into say an afghan. There's a question in my mind about durability, particularly since my friend Diana over in England has done a coat in Elkhound + wool. She suggested adding the wool, because it's a long-staple fiber, where dog hair is pretty short in length. We'll see, though. If it's a shawl, at least it's more likely to be something that, while  I use it, I'm not slinging it over the couch on a daily basis.

"This smells like MEEEEEEEEE!"

This is Tippi, going NUTS as she's sniffing and snorting her way through one of the hanks. It was as if she couldn't figure out why "this stuff smells like ME!!!"...

And yep, this is now "off my life list." I wish I would have had more of the husky hair, but for some reason, particularly with Topaz, since I had had her from a pup, I always thought there was "more time."

And as any dog person will tell you - Nope, there is NEVER more time. You want it, but it never quite works out that way.

My friends all want to pet the yarn, and one of them suggested that I go to the LYS (which is currently on a tear about "don't talk about yarn you didn't buy here") and tell them, "No, I didn't buy this here.  I grew it at home!"

So, wet husky doesn't really smell, but wet Elkhound does. Does that mean I'll smell MORE like a dog if this gets wet??