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Above is my most recent commission for a handspun chiengora (dog hair) hat. Hakata Ciye (means ""blood brother) and Shaa hine' i (means "gift") are Native American Indian dogs and the companions of Carole Deutsch of New Jersey. There are only four known breeders of these beautiful dogs. Carole is not one of the four breeders, but she and her husband are the happy companions to them. The chiengora was washed, carded, spun, plied, knitted and then felted for this wonderful hat. The photo on the left shows Carole wearing her hat and the right photo is a close-up view. I love working with chiengora and it's a pleasure whenever I have the opportunity. Thank you, Carole!

This commission was for handspun chiengora (dog hair) yarn. The donor was Loki Elmer-Malast who was the companion of Christopher Elmer and Cathy Malast. Loki passed on about eight years ago and in rememberance, Cathy and Christopher commissioned me to spin his Chiengora with a blend of wool and silk. As of this writing, Cathy and Christopher are taking some time to decide what they would like the final project will be. A photo of Loki will also be added at a later time.



Above is a photo of Misha McKenna. Misha is a Samoyed and his companions, Barbara and Larry McKenna, over the years, have sent me Misha's chiengora (dog hair) which I handspin and hand-dye into yarn. The yarn on the left was supplied by Misha, hand-dyed and was knitted into socks and hats. The socks on the right were also handspun from Misha's chiengora, hand-dyed and knitted into the socks you see here. Barbara is an incredible folk artist and her work includes embroidery, painting and antiques. Barbara and I have sort of an agreement where she provides me with Misha's chiengora and every so often, to cover my time and work, I send her an item made from the yarn. Thank you, Barbara!

This is my most recent commission for a handwoven scarf (click links to see photos) with yarn that I handspun from chiengora provided by Daisy McCarthy. Daisy and her companion, Carole McCarthy wanted a surprise Christmas gift for Carole's husband, Bob. Daisy has been a member of the family for over 13 years and both she and Carole wanted Bob's gift to be unique. Daisy's chiengora is a beautiful blend of colors from light to golden brown. After picking, washing, and then carding the chiengora with wool into roving, I then handspun it into yarn. The wool was added for the warp yarn only so that the yarn would have more strength during the weaving process as the warp yarn passed through the loom. The yarn that was used for the weft (yarn in shuttle) is 2 plies that was handspun from 100% chiengora, also provided by Daisy. Carole and Daisy requested that no additional colors be added to the finished scarf, but as I wanted some aspect of the scarf to stand out and be more noticeable, I decided to handweave a subtle one-row diamond design into the scarf. Carole contacted me after receiving the scarf to let me know how happy she was with it and I hope to add a photo to this section of Daisy, Carole and Bob wearing his new scarf. Thank you, Daisy, Carole & Bob!

The chiengora that I handspun for this yarn was provided by Isaac deDoes, a Golden Retriever/Huskie mix. His companion, Laura deDoes plans to knit hats for her family with the yarn. Laura commissioned 5 oz. each of 100% chiengora (left) and a blend of chiengora/wool (right). I blended Isaac's chiengora for the second skein with a natural grey wool fleece that I had on hand that happened to be as close as possible in color to the chiengora. Thank you, Laura and Isaac!

This is a photo of Joyce Mitchell and the back of a sweater that she is currently knitting from yarn that I handspun from wool and chiengora from Joyce's Keeshonds. To see a larger view, please click HERE. This sample of Joyce's sweater consists of knit, garter and seed stitch. Thank you, Joyce!

This is another yarn that I handspun for a customer from her Golden Retriever's chiengora. Sadly, her companion passed on, but she continues to have a reminder of him from a scarf that she handknitted from the yarn.

Seft: Deb Spigner at her first weaving workshop working on her handwoven scarf. Once she got her rhythm going, there was no stopping her and it wasn't long into the workshop that Deb was using weaving terminology.

Right: Sue Mac Combie, who took the class with Deb, just finished weaving her scarf and is knotting the fringe. Sue modeled her first handwoven scarf which went great with her sweater. Great job Deb and Sue on your first handwoven scarves!

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Two weeks later, Sue Mac Combie came back with her daughter, Sarah (see photo below), to weave her second project, a scarf using the pattern "Log Cabin". Sue did an excellent job on her second project and decided to purchase a loom so she and Sarah could continue weaving. I'm looking forward to receiving a photo from Sue modeling her new scarf.

Sarah Mac Combie, Sue's daughter took her first weaving class. Sarah's project was a multi-color scarf which she designed. Her selvedges (edges) were perfect. We may have another weaver in the making, especially since she and Mom will have a loom at home to work on.

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