I had stumbled upon this blog post mentioning silver fox hair and really wanted to get my hands on that stuff, since my mother is a great fox lover. It took me a while to track the source down, and even more to find someone who could tell me whether the foxes were harmed in the process, something which I wouldn't want. It turned out they were semi-domesticated and the hair was obtained by combing them. That sounded fine to me, so I purchased some of the fibre (the most expensive fibre I have ordered yet) and tried spinning it. It was a small desaster, to tell you the truth. Spinning these short hairs was very time-consuming and veeeery nerve-wracking, so I tried blending them with cashmere, which is also short in staple length but kind of gluey. That worked a lot better, but it still took me some time until I had about 700m of silver fox/cashmere yarn. I knew what I wanted to make from it - a simple garter stitch triangle shawl, such as this one. Oh - did I mention I was on a tight schedule? I am not too fast a knitter, and I had less than two months for spinning and knitting (and blocking and shipping) the whole thing. Maybe some of you will laugh now and think that's plenty of time, but not for me ;-)
Anyway, I did manage it in time for April 27th, but there was no time left to take photos of the shawl. I had to wait for that until my wedding in September, and now I've taken until now to show you ;-)So - here is my mother, on my wedding day, wearing her silver fox shawl:
Knit on 3mm needles in about 3 weeks, if I remember correctly. It's wonderfully soft and delicate, and I like the colour and texture, but it sheds quite a lot. Mum doesn't seem to mind, though. I still have some yarn left (I'm not sure, but it has to be nearly half the amount I spun) and maybe I will knit a small bag or purse to go with the shawl. I still have nearly two weeks left until shipping day for Mum's next birthday ;-)Oh, the pattern can be found here, by the way. Very easy and fun to knit :-)
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beautiful...would never have thought about spinning fox hair!!
ReplyDeleteVery beautiful! A treasure that will last forever. However, after your adventures, I will steer clear of fox fur. LOL ;p
ReplyDeletewhy didn't you say something, I sent Jana the sample and I could have spared some more for a project like this:)) I still have most of it in a bag, because I had similar problems, too short to spin on its own. I had planned to try it in a core yarn, but didn't get around to it yet.... at least it turned out well for you!
ReplyDeleteOh, I didn't know it was you, Woolly Bits - I didn't know you back then, I think. And I wouldn't have known how much I needed, anyway. I ordered 100g and that was far too much, especially after blending my spinning fibre with cashmere...
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone :-)