November workbasket It's gotten awfully stuffed full, mostly because I haven't had time to work on much for months.  In the top is a silk bell.

My interest in spinning began when I got my Newfoundland dog, Jasper.  The soft undercoat of the Newfoundland can be spun just like wool but is much softer, resembling angora (thus the term "chiengora" for spun dog fur).   I'll be putting up some examples of spun chiengora soon from various breeds of dog.   For now, here's a picture of baby booties made from poodle fur, along with a small ball of Samoyed fur spun on a drop spindle, and sitting on a loosely woven sample cloth of Jasper's fur.

On the crochet page I mention spinning mohair in batt form versus roving form.  Here is an example.  The fiber in the photo is part of a mohair batt carded on a hand-cranked drum carder and run through several times to open up the fibers as much as possible.  Some people refer to mohair in this form as "cloud" mohair, for obvious reasons.  The yarn in the photo is not spun from that particular mohair, it's just some I had left over after another project, but it was also spun from batts.

Return to Rain Daisy Handspinning