Laurie S. (LaurieS) reviewed Knitting With Dog Hair: A Woof-to-Warp Guide to Making Hats, Sweaters, Mittens and Much, Much More on + 504 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This was an interesting read. Why spend all sorts of money on yarn when I already have two fuzz producing critters? But then again who wants to wear a hat that smells like dog?
Smell was my biggest worry when I ran across this book. I know only too well how stinky my wet dogs can be, but apparently they say the smell can be washed out quite permanently and easily and then they ask if one has ever smelled a sheep up close. Good point!
With smell issues out of the way, I read on with interest. Instead of throwing away all of that lovely golden fur floating around my home, I might actually be able to use it. Of course this involves quite a bit of work. Daily brushings, the labor intensive washing, washing and washing again of the fuzz (without clogging your drain in the process), then one must card (comb)the fuzz so it all lays the way it should, then you've got to oil it, spin it (an art in itself) and ply it into yarn. Yikes, it looks so easy when laid out in a few pages in a book but it sounds too much like work for someone like me.
After you've done all of the above, you can knit hats, scarves and just about anything that you'd knit with wool. The projects seem pretty straightforward but the instructions assume one has some familiarity with knitting. There are scarves, hats, mittens sweaters, even a doggie sweater (the pic shows a pug smugly wearing a sweater made from newfoundland fur, way too cute!). You must know the basic stitches, know all about knitting the round, know how to use your double pointed and circular needles and how to work fair isle/intarsia if you want to finish many of these items. I would've appreciated a little knitting 101 section here (especially for the color work, are you supposed to purl or knit the colors??), but that's just me and I suppose that stuff can easily be found on google but still . . .
The other downside of this book are the black and white photos. The items are described as beautiful tones of "golden retriever fur" or whatever and then they show a grainy b
Smell was my biggest worry when I ran across this book. I know only too well how stinky my wet dogs can be, but apparently they say the smell can be washed out quite permanently and easily and then they ask if one has ever smelled a sheep up close. Good point!
With smell issues out of the way, I read on with interest. Instead of throwing away all of that lovely golden fur floating around my home, I might actually be able to use it. Of course this involves quite a bit of work. Daily brushings, the labor intensive washing, washing and washing again of the fuzz (without clogging your drain in the process), then one must card (comb)the fuzz so it all lays the way it should, then you've got to oil it, spin it (an art in itself) and ply it into yarn. Yikes, it looks so easy when laid out in a few pages in a book but it sounds too much like work for someone like me.
After you've done all of the above, you can knit hats, scarves and just about anything that you'd knit with wool. The projects seem pretty straightforward but the instructions assume one has some familiarity with knitting. There are scarves, hats, mittens sweaters, even a doggie sweater (the pic shows a pug smugly wearing a sweater made from newfoundland fur, way too cute!). You must know the basic stitches, know all about knitting the round, know how to use your double pointed and circular needles and how to work fair isle/intarsia if you want to finish many of these items. I would've appreciated a little knitting 101 section here (especially for the color work, are you supposed to purl or knit the colors??), but that's just me and I suppose that stuff can easily be found on google but still . . .
The other downside of this book are the black and white photos. The items are described as beautiful tones of "golden retriever fur" or whatever and then they show a grainy b
