ANGIE SULLIVAN: Hi.
I'm Angie Sullivan.
And this is my friend Rufus.
We're here today in Southport, Connecticut, to meet with
Kendall Crolius and learn all about knitting with dog hair.
Come on, Rufus.
We recently did a piece in "Vice" with photographer Erwin
[INAUDIBLE]
on dog hair garments.
And we're here today to find out how the
whole process is done.
KENDALL CROLUIS: I have been knitting with dog hair for
about 25 years now.
Hey, Rufus.
So this has been a very important part of my life.
I'm Kendall Crolius.
I'm a co-author of "Knitting with Dog Hair." And I'm
delighted to have you here with us today.
I have always loved needlework of all kinds.
Knitting, all of that.
And I'd always wanted to learn how to spin.
I thought that would be a fun thing to know.
And many years ago I was able to take a spinning course at a
local fiber arts store.
And one of the things that the teacher said to us was, by the
way, you don't have to limit yourself to
wool, to sheep wool.
You can spin anything.
You could even spin dog hair.
And I thought, well, that's interesting.
Because we had a golden retriever who shed like crazy.
And I thought, well, let me see whether I can do
something with that.
This is one of the sweaters that we made for the book.
This is actually a dog sweater with a dog on it.
The white part is Great Pyrenees.
Very soft and nice.
The brown dog is actually made from Newfoundland yarn.
But I love that.
My son wore that and was on the cover
of the first edition.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: OK, Kendall.
Can you start with showing us what the first step is to
knitting with dog hair?
KENDALL CROLUIS: Well, the first step is getting a dog.
And we have Rufus here with us today.
He's a fabulous candidate for dog hair knitting.
Right?
Because you've got a fabulous coat.
And we're going to brush you to get some of the stuff off
you that we need.
We're not going to shave you.
We're not going to shear you.
And we're not going to cut your hair.
See whether you can get some good fuzz off of Rufus.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Yeah.
KENDALL CROLUIS: Oh, yeah.
Oh, he likes this.
So we do this over a period of weeks or months till we've got
a nice big bag of dog hair.
And you can see, I can pull those off.
And it's almost like cotton.
Part of the appeal is that this garment that you've made
is a memento of a pet that you've loved who maybe has
gone on to dog heaven.
Or the fashion statement of I'm walking down the street,
and look, my scarf matches my golden
retriever who I'm walking.
Now we've collected all of this from the dog.
And it's a little stinky.
And we'd like to start the process of getting it clean.
It's a little doggy.
A little gamy.
So we're gonna wash it.
I tend to use dog shampoo.
Just kind of mix it up.
And then we're going to dump that.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Just throw it all in?
KENDALL CROLUIS: Ew.
Dog hair in the sink.
So I'm gonna let that sit for five minutes.
Well, there's really a wide range of reactions.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: It's like cleaning out
my drain in my shower.
KENDALL CROLUIS: Exactly.
Ew.
I mean, there's some people, primarily dog lovers, who just
think, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
What a fantastic idea.
And immediately see all of the wonderful possibilities
inherent in dog knitting.
There are other people who are completely grossed out.
It's like, oh, that's disgusting.
Why would you want to do that?
And doesn't it smell like a wet dog?
But the point is that you wash the fiber.
So it actually doesn't smell like anything at all.
Just as your wool sweaters don't smell, neither does a
dog hair sweater.
Give a sniff.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Yep.
KENDALL CROLUIS: You know?
No worries, right?
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Yeah, yeah.
KENDALL CROLUIS: So just like a sweater, I'm going to want
to take some of that moisture out of it.
Kind of roll it up in a towel, and that's a good way to get
the moisture out without sort of wringing the sweater or
wringing the dog hair.
And so we just kind of spread those out so that there are no
big, wet clumps sticking together.
The next thing we're going to do is card it, which is kind
of like brushing it so that we get all the fibers pointed in
the same direction.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: All right.
So we brush the dog.
KENDALL CROLUIS: We brush the dog.
And we have the fuzz.
And the next step is called carding.
So what you do is you take some of your clean fuzz.
And you're just gonna kind of stick it on there.
And you're just gonna draw the combs across each other.
And all this is doing is straightening out the fibers.
Yep.
See?
Way to go?
ANGIE SULLIVAN: And then what's the
next step after that?
KENDALL CROLUIS: The next step is actually to spin it.
So I'm just going to kind of get that kicked
in the right direction.
I'm spinning that along.
And I'm pulling out fibers.
And I let go and let it twist.
The spinning motion, the other wonderful thing, is it also
then draws the finished yarn up on to this bobbin.
There are two steps that you're going to
do with your hand.
You're going to pinch with your left hand.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: OK.
KENDALL CROLUIS: So nothing's twisting down here because
you're pinching.
And with your right hand, you're going to pull back a
little bit on this yarn.
See, let go a little bit.
See?
It twists.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Oh.
KENDALL CROLUIS: And then you move your hand down here and
do it again.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Oh.
And this will be spinning it tighter.
KENDALL CROLUIS: Yeah.
So I'm going to start treadling real slow.
OK.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: All right.
I'm just holding this?
KENDALL CROLUIS: Now let go a little bit.
Yep, yep.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Oh, I'm doing it.
KENDALL CROLUIS: See?
Look at you.
You're a natural.
You're a natural spinner.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: So then I grab some more?
KENDALL CROLUIS: Rapunzel.
Way to go.
Yep.
Don't let go.
OK.
Now I'm going to slow down for a second.
Now just glom some on there.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: All right.
KENDALL CROLUIS: Yep.
Now you're getting a lot of twist there.
Let it go.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Uh oh.
KENDALL CROLUIS: Yeah.
So you're a little lumpy.
But not bad.
This is stuff that was just gonna clog up your vacuum
cleaner, and here you can put it to good use.
So it's economical and it's ecologically correct and
environmentally sound.
Very much an on-trend craft, I think.
People often ask, I'm not really into dogs but I love my
cats and can you spin cat hair?
And the answer is absolutely.
Anything you can do with dog hair you can do with cat hair.
It's a little bit harder to work with because it has a
tendency to mat.
But I have done some gloves that's actually a Peaceable
Kingdom Collection in that it's got both dog
and cat yarn in it.
I don't actually remember whose pets are
which in all of this.
But I do remember that the thumbs are cat hair.
Let's start you with this.
This is a golden retriever scarf.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: All right.
What was it's name.
KENDALL CROLUIS: From Abigail.
Abigail.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Abigail.
KENDALL CROLUIS: And this looks great with a
camel's hair coat.
Just really a perfect match there.
We'll give you two scarves.
This is a woven scarf which is wool.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Is this also Abigail?
KENDALL CROLUIS: That's also Abigail.
Yep.
She was very prolific in this department.
This is a nice hat for you.
It was a Newfoundland.
I can't even remember who it came from.
Now I think, it is a cold day.
So let's give you the sweater as well.
Now this is Great Pyrenees, this is from Ollie.
Oh, you look great.
I'll tell you.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: All right.
KENDALL CROLUIS: And then your hands must feel cold.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: I feel like a polar bear.
KENDALL CROLUIS: So you're gonna have dog and cat.
Now you don't have the urge to go find a fire hydrant.
Nothing like that?
ANGIE SULLIVAN: No.
Maybe bark at the neighbors or something.
KENDALL CROLUIS: Yeah, that's good.
Howl at the moon.
Something like that.
If you were allergic to dogs, no worries.
Because--
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Yeah.
KENDALL CROLUIS: No, it's interesting.
Because when you're allergic to dogs, you're actually not
allergic to the fiber.
You're allergic to the dander.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Oh, so once it's all clean [INAUDIBLE].
KENDALL CROLUIS: So once it's washed and clean, there isn't
any of that in there.
And so even if you're allergic to dogs you can quite happily
wear dog hair.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Anyone can wear this?
KENDALL CROLUIS: Yeah.
After we wrote the book and people kind of got into it,
more people found out about it, I can't tell you how many
letters I've received for people who said,
oh, I got your book.
And I made a scarf.
And now Fluffy is gone and I can't tell you how grateful I
am to have the scarf made from Fluffy.
And I really have dozens of letters that say exactly that.
So that's an important emotional
connection to all of this.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: Thanks, Kendall, for teaching us how
to make dog hair yarn.
KENDALL CROLUIS: Well, you're very welcome.
ANGIE SULLIVAN: And to make sweaters out of it.
KENDALL CROLUIS: And I'm delighted that you're wearing
a dog hair sweater home whether you like it or not.
Look at you.
You're covered.