A frightening blurb from 1997:

What’s that smell?- The Boundary Waters catalog is produced by a Ely, Minnesota company and features all sorts of unique and useful outdoor equipment for the northwards paddler and hiker. Thumbing through the just-arrived fall and holiday edition, I turned past the dogsleds and arrived in the book section.

There, between books covering sauna building and drying food, something caught my attention.  The title of this new tome is Knitting With Dog Hair.   My first thought was this title belonged to a new humorous novel, but no, the book actually outlines the finer points of making garments with canine hair.

The product blurb claims that the book will show you how to collect your pet’s discarded fur and spin it into “luxurious” yarn that can be woven into “soft, warm, frost-repellent garments that you’ll love”.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t envision snuggling down on a cold night in a sweater made with ratty clumps of fur gathered from the nasty kennel floor.  We won’t even discuss canine culinary habits or a dog’s natural affinity for rolling in week-old roadkill.

I wonder what happens to a group of happy, dog-fur wearing hikers caught by a rain-shower then seeking shelter under a large tree:

“Well, we are soaked to the bone but we can wait here until the rain stops.”

Sniff, sniff, sniff…

“Ah, Jim, um, could you maybe wait over by that tree?”

Bookmark It

Hide Sites