WhiteStar

I'll Stop Whining Now

So what was with me yesterday?

After all, who picked the projects I'm working on? Is anyone forcing me to knit on these things?

I do feel justified in complaining about my tangled mess of Rayon Ribbon. Really, that sucks.

The Long Answer

Here's the long answer to Sue's question in the comments about whether or not I spin my (mountains of) Sammie hair.

Once upon a time I learned to knit. I knit all the time, every free moment I got. It was all I did whan I wasn't at work.

Then one day I got a dog. A beautiful cinnamon colored chow-chow named Irish. Twice a year Irish would shed all her coat. MOUNTAINS of beautiful cinnamon colored fluff that was incredibly soft. Like camel down.

At about the same time I read an article in a magazine about spinning dog hair. "Hmmmm...." I thought, "I bet Irish has good hair for spinning." So I bought a spinning wheel and learned to spin.

And then I read another article about spinning dog hair that said Samoyed hair was the cream of the crop as far as dog fiber goes. I had seen Samoyeds, they were pretty white dogs, and seemed nice enough. I could live with a dog like that. The search for a Samoyed began.

That's where Alaska came in. I did everything wrong when I bought her, even though I knew better. She came from a pet store which meant she was a puppy mill dog. I figured I was "saving her". She was a great pet but due to her poor pedigree she had a lot of health problems. Among them she had thyroid disease. In dogs that causes them to have really poor coats. Plus she rarely shed any coat! But I loved her even if I couldn't spin her fur.

A few years later I moved from an urban area in Virginia to a very rural area in Colorado. I decided to get another sammie so I could have her hair to spin. I knew this time I needed to get a "good one". The search for another sammie began.

That is how I ended up with Sasha. She was from a really good breeder in Oregon and was the last girl left in her litter. All her sisters had already gone to their homes, but the breeder was hanging on to Sasha because she was so nice, she wanted to find a home that would show her.

I was clueless about showing, but figured "How hard can it be?", so I took her.

Here we are, 11 years later. Irish is gone, Alaska is gone, Sasha is gone but there are now 11 sammies in residence at WhiteStar. We show in conformation, play in agility and obedience. My dogs herd sheep when they can, they pull a sled and do weight pulls. We pack hike when the weather is good. Yes, I still collect the hair and occasionally spin some of it, but the bottom line is, most of the time that I could be using to spin their hair is spent playing with them, feeding them, bathing them, brushing them, taking them to shows and loving them!

Anne at 9:09 AM