Hi Betty, gosh, you brought back memories!  We had a close neighbour who
used to make sweaters from their samoyed's fur.  When samoyeds moult, the
usually drop it in a VERY short time, and its the undercoat that comes
out... in GOBS, HANDSFULL!  Almost by the bag with very little in the way
of guard hair.  As a matter of fact, she told me she removes as much of the
guard hairs as possible, as it takes away from the soft feeling.  Anyway,
there is very little work to gathering the undercoat.  At that certain time
of year, you just reach out, and grab a handful *G*  (I know, as we also
had a samoyed for years)  The REAL work is in the cleaning, adding oil
(because dogs don't have natural oils like sheep have lanolin, so you add a
tablespoon of oil to the wash water in the bathtub) carding, spinning,
and finally the knitting.  Our neighbour used to use patterns for the
Siwash/Salish Indian pattern sweaters that you can buy on the west coast
of Canada (uses an 8 mm needle - very big!)  The resulting sweaters were
gorgeous!  But, it sure takes a LOT of fur, it would take you MANY years,
even if you had 10+ ferrets.
 
Just thought you might be interested in this :)
 
Mary and the Merry Band of 10
[Posted in FML issue 2639]