History:

Lyndall Toothman, known to all as Granny Toothman,  was an ecletic and talented woman who traveled across the country, spinning and weaving as she went. She was known to spin just about any type of fiber, from the more common wool, cotton, and flax, to dog, cat, rabbit, and human hair. She even tried penguin feathers once! This small scarf is made from dog hair, though the breed is unknown. Granny Toothman dyed some of the fibers before weaving it into this plaid pattern. 

She shares her first experience with dog hair in Foxfire 10:

“One place where I was demonstrating, I had a big crowd around me. Now, I hadn’t done dog hair or anything but sheep’s wool until that time. A woman came up and said she’d been saving some of her dog’s hair, and would I spin it for her. I told her I’d never spun dog hair, but I’d try it, and that I would spin it for half the yarn if I could do it. So she brought these big twenty-pound lard cans–two or three of them. When I got through with the yarn, we had thirteen pounds of yarn, and it only takes a pound and a half to make a sweater. I made a coat and a sweater and little caps  and things out of mine; she made a coat. [I’m glad I got started doing that], because dog hair is much easier spun and much softer than sheep’s wool.”