By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — From a practical standpoint, it might take a good long while for Shep or Fluffy to shed enough hair to make a blanket – but that Mary Jo Tilford spins pet hair at all may be the incentive for some readers to start collecting their four-legged friends’ brushings.
Through her business The Spinner’s Dogge, the Indianapolis woman specializes in keepsakes crafted from woven dog hair, such as the short, fringed sample scarf she totes around to events like the Indiana State Fair, at which she and other area spinners set up a small indoor exhibition area on Aug. 15. A combination of tri-colored, sable and blue merle collie hair, the small scarf gives new meaning to the “working” label usually applied to these herding breeds – this item particularly is spun and woven from some of Tilford’s own four dogs.
“It’s soft,” she explained, holding the scarf out for passersby to pet, “and as you wear it, it’s going to ‘bloom’ like angora. It gets a halo.”
The breeds she works with most besides various collies are Great Pyrenees, Huskies and Australian Shepherds. Perhaps it’s no coincidence most are also dogs best known for herding other animals whose primary job to humans is giving hair and wool for fiber such as sheep and llamas. Tilford has, however, also spun hair from poodles, Labradors, a German Shepherd and even cats.
She advised the best hair comes from double-coated, long-haired breeds. She encourages clients to collect from gentle brushing – it’s the quickest way, and most pets enjoy the feel of the brush and the time spent bonding with their humans. The hair must be clean and dry, best stored loosely in a paper sack or box.
For the sample scarf, 15 x 2 inches long and using about two ounces of hair, Tilford estimated she spent two hours spinning. Holding a lapful of fluff, she pedals a wooden spinning wheel as she feeds it into the spool, controlling pressure on the fluff, or “drafting,” to create the yarn’s thickness. (A full-sized scarf then takes about six hours to weave.)
“You could’ve done this with one brushing, if you had one dog, easily,” she said of the sample scarf.
One of her specialty items is a picture frame she makes by weaving spun hair through a specially-cut plastic grid. Other items include dream catchers, ornaments, jewelry and larger pieces such as pillows and shawls.
“It’s supposed to be a business, but I’m not there yet,” said the 53-year-old urgent care nurse, who works part-time for Carmel Med Check. She also works for a pet grooming shop two days a week, which she enjoys and also satisfies her need for practice material.
Tilford’s sister-in-law was a home economics teacher, and 18 years ago Tilford asked for spinning lessons. She’s only been in business for a year, but is a member of both SWIFT (Spinners and Weavers of Indiana Fibers and Textiles) and BASK (Beautiful and Aspiring Spinners and Knitters). The groups each meet frequently for education and fellowship.
It was through these groups that she and Eran McCarty of Fortville, Ind., met. McCarty, who set up a spinning wheel next to Tilford’s at the fair, works with more traditional fiber from her own 11 llamas. She’s been spinning for three years and explained she went into business as MW Swampy Acres about a year ago “by accident” when an acquaintance asked her to make some items to sell in their shop.
Before then, she simply spun to make use of the llama hair, since raising the animals was her primary hobby. “I like their personality,” she explained. “The fiber’s just a bonus.”
Picking up a short length of material woven from llama hair, she held it out for petting, explaining it was especially soft because it’s made from baby llama hair. “I love to touch it,” she said. “It’s just cool to have (the raw material to finished product) from beginning to end.”
McCarty also spins wool she buys in nearby Pendleton.
Demonstrating how she spins, she snapped her length of wool from where it was feeding into the wheel, then rolled the two pieces back together quickly and continued the length of yarn. One can do this, she said, because the fiber has microscopic “scales” that grab easily onto one another.
Like Tilford, she determines the heft of her skein with pressure while drafting it into the wheel – bulkier yarn, for example, is good for sweaters and big clothing, whereas socks or lacy items require a finer-threaded yarn. But it’s not all under their control.
“Sometimes,” McCarty said, “the fiber will tell you what it wants to be.”
To learn more about SWIFT and BASK or these two businesses, contact Tilford at 317-408-0062 or via e-mail at maryjo@thespinnersdogge.com or McCarty at 317-485-4870 or by e-mail at ehmccarty@aol.com
This farm news was published in the Aug. 29, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
