Chiengora

December 7, 2002 6:33 PM

Chiengorais the fancy term for dog hair used to make mittens, hats, sweaters, and more. This site will teach you all about chiengora and how to hand spin it into yarn. If you'd rather just brush your dog and send the fur to someone else to knit, check out Rover's Comb.
posted by acridrabbit (12 comments total)

Hmph. No chatgora. Where does that leave me and my deux chats?

Seriously though - with my chiengora duds and my LifeGem jewelry, I'll be pimpin' enviro stylee...
posted by stonerose at 6:47 PM on December 7, 2002

Used to see this stuff at dog shows all the time. Some of it's really beautiful. I used to save garbage bags full of undercoat (was a dog groomer for many years) in the spring and fall for the local knitters.
posted by NsJen at 7:13 PM on December 7, 2002

better a sweater from a dog you know and love than from a sheep you'll never meet.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:43 PM on December 7, 2002

'Chiengora' - bwahahaha!

What stonerose is riffing on, for our unilingual pals, is that 'chien' is just French for 'dog' ('chat' being 'cat').

That's funny.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:10 PM on December 7, 2002

Um... er... yeaaaaah. I just can't see wearing dog fur. I spend enough time trying to keep my cat's fur off my clothing to intentionally put it on.

Even beyond that, the idea is somehow creepy to me. I remember a huge to-do about Burlington Coat Factory selling fur coats that turned out to be made from dogs, which is the first thing in my mind after reading this story. Not the same thing, but about as strange in my mind.
posted by Kellydamnit at 9:41 PM on December 7, 2002

I don't see why it's any stranger than wearing wool, Kellydamnit. I've heard that dog hair sweaters shed a bit, though.
posted by biscotti at 10:27 PM on December 7, 2002

What stonerose is riffing on, for our unilingual pals, is that 'chien' is just French for 'dog'

anyone who clicked on the link would have learned that if junior high french is too far in the past...

Even beyond that, the idea is somehow creepy to me.

how do you feel about wearing cashmere & angora?

i think it's kind of cool. Weird, but cool. I don't have the patience or the dogs or the desire for luxury fiber knitted garments, but it's neat to see how things are made.
posted by mdn at 10:32 PM on December 7, 2002

I did a one-time consulting job for a woman who did this as a hobby. She told me she carefully brushed her dogs each night to build up enough to spin. She even showed me some things she'd made. I thought it was pretty cool, if a little strange.
posted by Nothing at 11:36 PM on December 7, 2002

... and wearing a sweater made out of Uncle Ted is just like having a part of him in our lives ...

Yes, it's possible.
posted by statisticalpurposes at 12:11 AM on December 8, 2002

anyone who clicked on the link would have learned that

Whoops. Caught red-handed.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:51 AM on December 8, 2002

We had some neighbors that made a sweater from the hair of their Samoyed. Let's just say that you wouldn't want to be caught in a rainstorm unless you enjoyed the smell of wet dog.
posted by machaus at 10:30 AM on December 8, 2002

Heh. I saw this on one of Animal Planet's weird TV shows: guy saves up his dog's hair and takes it to a specialty boutique in NYC, where they make it into a knitted cap.

While I never actually pulled this off, I did keep angora rabbits for awhile (during my earth mother phase) and plucked, spun, and then knitted the hair. I often thought the dog's fur could be incorporated, but it would have resulted in a very scratchy yarn.

And it may be very obvious, but the dog-hair coats rumor was gross, because the dogs would have been killed to get their pelts, whereas with yarn, whether from alpacas, rabbits, sheep, or goats, the hair is either combed, plucked or shorn without slaying the animal.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:53 AM on December 9, 2002