Meagan Condon

Knitting with Dog Hair: New Edition!

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In 1997, the first edition of Knitting with Dog Hair by Kendall Crolius made its way onto shelves. I remember my horrified fascination (a misplaced psychological reaction) the first time I picked it up with all my preconceived notions about what could and should be spun. This book was an absolute eye-opener for me, and it has helped me cope with the loss of some of my furry family members!

Now on its third revision and printing, you can get the updated book just in time for the giving season. To celebrate its latest release on December 3, I had the thrilling opportunity to interview Kendall.

Thank you for taking the time to share a little bit about yourself and your book. There are many in the PLY community who have benefited from your work.

Q: Before you were the world’s leading authority on dog hair knitting, how did you first start spinning?

A: My beloved husband gave me a spinning workshop for my birthday – at a fiber arts store in our neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. My spinning teacher mentioned “you don’t have to limit yourself to sheep wool – you can spin anything, even dog hair.” I had a sheddy Golden Retriever at the time and started spinning her fuzz.

Q: What drove you to write about working with dog hair?

A: Writing about it wasn’t my idea! I had dear friends, Barbara Binswanger and Jim Charlton, who were book packagers. They had a Great Pyrenees, Ollie, and brought me Ollie fuzz every time we got together. One weekend, I decided to spin it to make them mittens and ended up with enough yarn to make a sweater for Barbara and a vest for Jim.  Jim said, “This would be a great book.” And great visionary that I am, I said, “No it wouldn’t – that’s ridiculous.” Jim and Barb wrote it up as a book proposal and pitched it for TEN YEARS before St. Martins decided to publish the original edition.

Q: What are the benefits of working with dog hair and which breeds are the easiest to spin?

A: The most important benefit is having a garment from a beloved pet. For many breeds, the yarn itself is superior to wool. Any dog that sheds is an ideal candidate. My preferred breeds are Samoyed, Great Pyrenees, and Golden Retriever but that’s because I have specific dogs I love. 

Q: Before you were a writer, you had an incredible career leading the G100 Leadership Network, and before that, in businesses like Forbes and McCann-Erickson. Can you tell me a little bit about your career and how that impacted your choices when writing Knitting with Dog Hair?

A: This is great question! My career and my interest in dog knitting don’t have a lot of intersections. I can say that writing this book has solidified my reputation as an eccentric and a creative thinker. I spent the last 15 years of my business career running a program that helped prepare very senior executives to be the next CEO of their company. When the participants googled me, of course the first thing that popped up was Knitting with Dog Hair – it was a great icebreaker when I onboarded new participants. The leadership lesson is be who you are and bring all of you to your business career.

Q: What is your favorite part of the book to write?

A: I have loved writing about the people who have created cottage industries focused on spinning yarn from beloved pets. With this edition, it was much easier to connect with artisans simply because of the internet. I have formed real friendships with the fabulous people who have adopted this craft.

Q: You are now on the third revision of your book. What has the journey through this all looked like for you? 

A: I am so gratified to have connected with people who have embraced this craft. There are so many people who have created businesses spinning dog yarn for dog lovers who want to create a memento of a beloved pet.

For those who have read the book before, what updates should readers keep their eyes out for? 

I have updated the list of “Spinners Guide to Dog Breeds” with data on breeds that were not recognized in the nineties, including the “designer dogs” like LabraDoodles that were not included in the original edition.

For more than twenty-five years, Kendall Crolius has inspired us to boldly experiment with pet fiber. Her unique insights have expanded the domain of fiber artists everywhere and helped create a niche community of spinners who help dog lovers celebrate their furry family members.

The revised copy of Knitting with Dog Hair is now available. If you don’t already have a copy, now is a great time to pick one up!

Meagan Condon

Swapping to a Polyurethane Drive Band

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I am incredibly hard on my tools. By that I mean I put hours of use into them. And I make sure I take care of my tools so I can put even more hours on them!

One part I replace frequently is the drive band. For cotton drive bands, my rule is to replace the drive band after eight hours of use. The drive band stretches over time, loses its elasticity, and can abrade.

The photo to the left is the drive band I just removed from my Ashford Elizabeth II. If I’m honest, this drive band saw a little more than eight hours of use. You can clearly see it is frayed and at the end of its life.

When a drive band gets to this point, it is prone to slipping and snapping.

Cotton drive bands have their own benefits. They are easy and cheap to source. A ball of cotton kitchen twine will keep you stocked on drive bands for years. They are also simple to replace by either knotting them or stitching the ends together.

Remember, though, I am hard on tools. With my usage, I change cotton drive bands out at least once per week. I needed something a little longer-lasting. I decided to swap my cotton drive bands for polyurethane bands.

Many wheel manufacturers have designed their newer wheels (castle-style wheels in particular) to use polyurethane bands. There is a good chance that you’ve already got a poly band on your wheel. Vintage wheels or more “classic” wheel designs are not often equipped with a poly band. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be.

I use my Elizabeth II in double-drive mode. I kept this in mind when selecting a poly band. I settled on a 2mm band, which is thinner than what is usually provided by wheel manufacturers.

Once I cut off my cotton drive band, I used it to measure out the correct length of poly band. I threaded the poly band on my wheel just as I would with a cotton band. The trick to polyurethane is in the join.

To join the two ends of poly band, I used a lighter to melt the two ends, then pushed them together. Before the plastic fully cooled, I took a folded piece of paper and rolled the join back and forth between the paper. This rounded the join so that it would pass through my wheel smoothly.

The resulting join is strong and flexible.

Like cotton drive bands, these have their benefits and drawbacks. The poly band lasts years instead of weeks. However, it won’t work well with every wheel. Depending on how deep the wheel groove is and the finish of the wood, the poly band might slip out. It is more likely to jump the groove in a double-drive setup, especially if the groove is narrow. The two bands compete for space in a way that cotton bands don’t. This is one of the reasons I chose a thinner band.

The poly band also tends to have more grab than the cotton band and can create stronger uptake, which may throw off your default spin.

Twenty hours of spin-time in, though, and it is serving me well.

Meagan Condon

Sneak Peek: The Winter 2024 Issue!

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The PLY Winter 2024 issue is set to be released early next month, and we are so excited about this issue because the topic is Care!

Let me tell you, this issue is PACKED. Sustainability, ergonomics, textile conservation, tool upkeep… We’ve got it this quarter!

Just a few highlights:

Andrea Peart tells us about dealing with wool sensitivities and how she has handled being a handspinner in a world where Merino is king.

Maggie Casey shows us all about caring for our spinning wheels and talks about how innovation has changed the way we care for wheels!

Anne Choi delves deep into the history of Korean textiles, a history that is rife with cultural erasure and contemporary disregard.

Natasha Sills of Gritty Knits tells us how she has learned to turn her brain off and take a break while carding to help her manage her arthritis.

And there is so, so much more!

We hope you’re as excited for this issue as we are! Be sure to subscribe (or renew your subscription) by the end of the month to make sure you don’t miss out on this issue!

Meagan Condon

SCENE: Upcoming in the Community

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PLY strives to bring together the global spinning community and give a voice to spinners everywhere. Is there an upcoming event you’d like to share? Do you have or know of a new product, fiber, or tool you think the community should know about? If so, fill out this form!

Once each month, we’ll feature SCENE content on the blog and social media.

What are you waiting for? Let us know what’s cool, hep, lit, fire in your fiber world!

Submit to SCENE now!

wool from different breeds of sheep demonstrating different lengths of fiber
Meagan Condon

Three Tips for Making Consistent Yarn

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Maybe you’ve just learned how to spin and now you are struggling to create consistent yarn.  Or perhaps you’ve been spinning for a long time and are ready to refine your technique. These tips will help you create a more consistent yarn.

Tip One: Know Your Staple

examples of different breeds of wool showing different lengths of locks from short to long

If you are experiencing problems with inconsistent yarn, it is often related to drafting. Whether you’re a new spinner or an old hand, it is always valuable to go back and check the staple of your fiber and adjust your hands. For newer spinners, it is a question of building up muscle memory. For experienced spinners, it is easy to fall into hand habits and default movements.

Remember, aim to hold your hands roughly 1 to 1.5x the staple length. If your hands are too far apart, you will wind up with thin spots where your fiber drafted too much. If your hands are too close together, you might be wearing out your hands by fighting to draft your fiber from both ends. This can result in thick sections in your yarn.

Also try to reach the same distance into your fiber supply each time you draw fibers into the draft zone.  The deeper into your fiber supply you pull from, the more fibers in your drafting zone and the thicker yarn you will make.

Tip Two: Rhythm, Rhythm, Rhythm

Rhythm is everything in spinning. Consistent yarn requires the same number of twists in a particular length of yarn, throughout an entire skein. If you’re like me, rhythm doesn’t come naturally.

First, try to practice treadling your wheel with nothing on it; no fiber, no yarn. Treadle while watching a movie. Treadle while having a conversation. The more you practice treadling, the more regular you will become, even if you don’t have a strong internal sense of rhythm. When you practice treadling, you are increasing your muscle memory and reinforcing the neural network. The less you have to consciously think about treadling, the easier it is to find rhythm.

If all else fails and you can’t find a natural rhythm, don’t give up. You can always count. You read that right. Count your treadles for each time you draft. Even if you can’t keep a steady treadle, you can make sure you’re still getting the same amount of twist each time you draft. A funny thing happens when you manually count treadles; often, your rhythm and your muscle memory kick in when you least expect it.

Tip Three:  Sleep on It

All this practice sounds fantastic, but there’s one more thing you need to bring it all together – a good night’s sleep. Research has shown that sleep is necessary for the consolidation of information. Basically, during sleep, the brain retraces the neural pathways used for a particular task and determines which pathways are the most efficient. By reinforcing certain pathways, the same information is more likely to travel along those pathways, saving the brain resources. If you’re feeling frustrated after a spinning session, set your work aside and come back to it the next day. You’ll be amazed at the difference it can make.

dog sleeping
Guest Blogger

So You Wanna Learn to Spin

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Hello! If you have found your way to this little corner of the internet, I take it that you are at least somewhat interested in learning how to spin yarn. Well, new friend, you have come to the right place!

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Guest Blogger

Step Away from Your Electric Wheel

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The title sounds like something the “Spinning Police” would say, doesn’t it? No, I’m not here to give you a ticket, but maybe an idea instead. 

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Guest Blogger

Fleece Whispered into Spinning

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As I trace my steps in the world of spinning, I realize it is not a straight progression. I think that’s okay because just as I have been told over and over again that there is no absolutely correct way to spin, I believe there is no absolutely correct way to learn how to spin. But the end is the same – the delicious accomplishment of turning fibres into yarn!  

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