Dog Wool Yarn: Chiengora

100% Newfoundland Dog YarnIf you are a knitter or crocheter who keeps an eye on cutting edge fiber trends and fiber oddities, you may have heard of "chiengora," or yarn spun from dog's fur.  My neighbor breeds Newfoundland dogs, and saves their shed undercoats to be spun by a local spinner.  She recently dropped off a few skeins of dog fur yarn, which I will be swatching up this weekend.

Unlike sheep's wool, chiengora can only be made from the undercoat of a double-coated dog.  Sheep are sheared and their entire coat spun into yarn.  However, only the soft fluffy undercoat from a breed like the Newfoundland, Spitz, or Golden retriever is suitable for making into yarn.  The coarser, glossy outer hairs won't work.  This means that the dog's "wool" has to be gathered the hard way, by brushing out the coat (particularly in spring, when the winter undercoat is being shed) and saving the result.

The first thing you notice about dog fur yarn is that it doesn't smell like a dog, even when wet.  Dogs smell whiffy for the same reason that sheep do - thanks to the oils in their coat - and a capable spinner will remove these oils before finishing the yarn.  Wet chiengora smells a lot like wet wool - it has an odor, but it's not objectionable.

Most spinners remove the oil in the prep stage.  However, dog fur felts easily, and this can be a tricky process.  (If you want to try prepping dog fur, this Instructables article will help you get started.)  When I talked to the spinner who worked on this skein, she said that she waited to wash the fur until after it was spun, to help prevent felting.

Sheep have been carefully bred for centuries to produce the characteristics we expect from modern wool.  Sheep's wool has a consistent staple length (the length of the fibers, which helps keep the yarn together once it's spun), and the resilience known as "bounce" which helps the knitted item keep its shape.  

To compensate for the lack of bounce and consistent staple length, most spinners will blend the dog's wool with sheep's wool to create a yarn that's 80/20 or 50/50 dog/sheep.  As a knitter, you can also knit the chiengora held along with a second strand of 100% wool yarn, which will help give the dog yarn a support structure for your garment.

Garments made from chiengora have a surprising luster, and a remarkable halo.  (This halo is the result of the inconsistent staple length of the dog fur fibers.)  It is also shockingly warm, at least ten times more warm than wool, due to its better insulation properties.  An entire sweater knit from chiengora is probably not the best choice, unless you are the kind of person who is always cold, and can tolerate the warmest clothes on the planet.

A better choice for knitting dog fur is to choose a stole, scarf, or wrap pattern.  Because these garments don't have to keep their shape the same way a pair of mittens or a hat would, it helps compensate for the unique characteristics of the dog's wool.