Local Woman Spins Animal Fur for Clients

There's a new meaning to the phrase “man's best friend” for anyone who has purchased a spun item from Leesburg resident Catherine Dodds.

For 19 years she has been spinning animal fur for clients who have collected it from their animals.

Items such as sweaters, blankets, mittens, scarves and socks have been requested as a way to remember their pet.

“Whenever you spin you can spin anything,” Dodds said, who's been a spinner and weaver for about 45 years. She learned the technique from her grandmother and owns 24 spinning wheels, some dating back to the 1800s.

“I just started experimenting with it and I said, 'Oh, this works and that works.' And so I started doing it for other people who have asked me to spin the fur of their favorite animal.”

Although she's never kept a list of how many items she's sold, Dodds says that it's somewhere in the hundreds. Through the 70s it was really a big thing, she said, that people wanted spun all the time.

When she isn't spinning for clients, Dodds said she enjoys using fur from her twelve year old Newfoundland, named Rowdy, who she's been saving fur from for almost ten years.

“He's 140 pounds of love,” Dodds said. “Needless to say I am never at a loss for yarn from the dog.”

Dodds has also spun the fur of what she described as her “very fat Angora rabbit”, which she had for twelve years.

In one year, she would get about a pound of fur just by plucking at him, she said, which in the end saved her a lot of money.

“Normally, it would cost $10 for just an ounce of Angora,” she said. “So it was nice to have him around.”

When asked what the strangest animal was that Dodds has ever spun her response was, “a chinchilla”.

Dodds has also spun the hair of goats, a Scottish long-haired cow as well as a number of horses. Most of her clients, however, tend to be cats and dogs.

“I had one little girl who was in class with my kids, when they were little, [before] they moved to Kentucky,” Dodds described. “One day I get this letter from her mother and they had this little Lhasa Apso thing. For eleven years they had been collecting that hair. The dog was going to be gone within a couple years and she said, 'Could you do something with this for Lee?' So she mailed it from Kentucky, I spun in all up, eleven years worth, made a blanket for her and mailed it.”

The time it takes for each project varies, Dodds said, although she can spin about a pound a day if needed. That's just enough for one sweater, she said, weighing in at about a pound in a half.

The process includes having to separate each piece of hair while deciding what's good and bad. She uses carders to comb out the fibers before controlling the fur as it spins into a ball of yarn. If needed, it will be washed before an item is made.

Dodds said she is looking forward to continuing her business, which has been licensed in Leesburg since 1973. She also offers classes to anyone interested in learning how to spin.

“It's a real fun thing to do for people,” Dodds said. “It's been a good life and I make a lot of friends.

"There's a lot of people out there with their dog on them.”

If you'd like to have something made from your pet's fur or would like to take a class, contact Catherine Dodds at 703-777-4256.