life, Pets, weather

Snow, Flowers, and Chiengora

Lori

So, this happened over the weekend. 👇

It was only a couple of inches, and it melted by Monday afternoon.I noticed that a few of my blogging friends already have daffodils in full bloom. Our weather was mild before this snow, but we don’t have full bloom here. Just a few sprouts. I planted flowers for the first time in 2019. I had one little bud of crocus sprouting, and then came the snow. The flower still looks on track though (below). I also see some tulip leaves reaching out of the soil.

Tiny little crocus bud
Tulips?

So, not much else is going on for a population who are closed off in their homes, but I do have something new to share unrelated to the weather or the dreaded virus. I’ll start with a question. Do you know what Chiengora is? If so, you’re ahead of me. I just recently learned what the word meant.

We said goodbye to our Australia Shepherd, Max, in January. While he was alive, I needed to groom his coat once a week, and I did it myself. For the last four years of his life, I’d been collecting his undercoat and saving it. Weird, right? It’s nice to keep a tiny memento, but bags of it?

Please excuse the messy picture of him on the grooming table. It’s to give an idea how much fur we took off of him each week.

After Max left us, we shipped all that fur from Chicago to Canada. Six weeks later, it returned to us in the form you see below.

Infinity scarf for Lori
Scarf for Gary

The fur was washed, weaved into material called Chiengora, and then knitted into the scarfs. They say Chiengora is among the warmest material for winter you can find. The seamstress of these creations did a beautiful job.

When anyone used to pet Max, they’d always comment on his soft fur. I was a little surprised to find that the material is prickly, like wool. Yet it’s flexible (stretchy) and still has the underlying smoothness of our Max.

It’s emotionally difficult for me to write about this, so I will end here. I just wanted to share this incredible gift we have been given from Max and a seamstress who lives in Canada.

 

 

Published by Lori

Observer, thinker, learner, analyzer, and author. Love dogs. Enjoy cooking, laughing and spiritual centering.

36 thoughts on “Snow, Flowers, and Chiengora”

  1. Hi Lori, I greatly appreciate the “depth and a touch of humor.” Both admirable traits always and especially today. I realize this is a March, 2020 post, although, I hear some bloggers are still getting snow this morning.

    A fascinating post that gave me goosebumps, Lori. I did not know it had a name “Chiengora.” Yet, I have been hearing more about this recently. I have bookmarked your post since I would like to share it with family, if this is all right with you. A beautiful and poignant post. Thank you for sharing. Hugs.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Erica. Yes, this is an older post, but we did get a couple inches of snow Friday morning again. By dinner time it had all melted already, and it is 60f (16c) degrees here today.

      I had known about having dog fur made into material, but I didn’t know it was called Chiengora until we contacted the lady who made it. You are welcome to share it with anyone. Those scarves are truly a treasure to have.

      BTW, do you follow Anneli Purchase’s blog? She lives on Vancouver Island and puts up beautiful photo scenes taken from her back deck. Vancouver is just gorgeous.

      Thank you for the nice comment and the hugs.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hi Lori, I met her just recently via Jill on this post. A nice coincidence. I will visit her blog. Maybe we have already run into each other.🙂 Before the Self Isolating. I am glad our paths crossed, Lori.🙂

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  4. I’m so sorry to hear about your Max. And what a sweet thing to do with his soft hair. We are dog lovers too, and it’s soo very hard to lose those four-legged family members. The only time I’ve seen my husband cry. 🙂 I hope you’re on the road to healing.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi Diana. Thank you for sharing your experience with losing a four-legged family member. Anyone who goes through this understands that heartache. We’re beginning to experience spring here, and it’s our first one without him. Thank you also for your kind words. 💗

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Andrea. I heard about how making dog fur into material four years ago, but didn’t know dog-fur-material was actually called Chiengora and is especially good for winter accessories. Thanks for reading about it. I hope you are feeling better. 💗

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Oh my gosh, I’m crying over your Max Chiengora. I wish I’d known about this six years ago, when our Golden Henry died. I also (don’t tell anyone) used to brush Henry several times a week and save his fur. After a time, I’d put the fur out in bushes for the birds to use while they made nests. I think they appreciated it! But how I’d love a scarf made with some of his fur. Honor that scarf forever. I’m sure you will.
    And enjoy the bulbs that are starting to rise. We had a lot of crocus bulbs, but the chipmunks dug them all up. I guess it was a super treat for them one day. ;-0

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh Pam, thank you for reading about our Max Chiengora and sharing your heartfelt feelings. I know how much you would’ve liked to have used that saved fur of Henry’s to do the same. I wished I would’ve known about it when we lost our first boy. We found out about it from a news segment four years ago, and we started saving Max’s fur right afterward. Not a lot of people do this. Husband had to do some searching.

      Those sneaky little chipmunks. I hope they don’t find our crocus bulbs.

      Hope you have a nice and safe weekend.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh, I can just imagine the beautiful white scarf made from your Laddie’s fur. Not many people do this. My husband searched the internet to find someone. Thank you for checking it out and your kind words.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Joy. Yes, we saved the fur over the past 4 years in hopes we could find someone who would make them for us. I’m so glad we did. Thanks for checking them out.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Jill. The snow wasn’t so bad. It melted within 12 hours. In case it isn’t clear, there are two scarfs we had made. The first one is an infinity scarf for me. The second one is a regular scarf for Gary. Thanks for checking them out.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi L. About four years ago we had seen a news segment on television about how they can make winter accessories from dog fur. So we started saving it from that point forward. After we lost Max, my husband started searching online for someone to do it and found this woman in Canada on Etsy. BTW, in case it’s not clear, there are two scarfs. The first one is an infinity scarf for me. The second is a regular scarf for my husband. Thanks for checking them out.

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    1. Hi Anneli. I didn’t mind the snow. It was melted within 12 hours. The scarfs we knew we were going to have down from his fur years ago. I didn’t know it was called chiengora until we found someone to do it. Oh, and btw, in case it wasn’t clear, there are two scarfs. One is an infinity scarf for me, the other a regular scarf for Gary.

      Liked by 1 person

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