Knitting with fur

The creator of the technique of "knitting" fur is the world-famous Canadian designer Paula Lishman. She made knitted items from rabbit skins. By cutting them into thin strips and twisting them so that the fur was both inside and outside, she invented "fur" yarn. Clothing made from such yarn gives a feeling of weightlessness, extraordinary softness, the absence of sharp boundaries, "dry" constructions, and contrasting color transitions.
The range of fur semi-finished products currently used to create "fur knitwear" is very broad. These are the skins of mink, fox, beaver, ferret, rabbit, and even Baikal sable. The best raw material is considered to be sheared or plucked semi-finished product. Coats and cardigans, dresses and skirts, trousers and jackets, shawls, vests, hats, and much more are knitted. To obtain a smooth, long, and continuous "thread," first-rate large-sized skins are used. However, bags, hats, mittens, and home slippers can also be successfully made from fur scraps or low-grade fur semi-finished products (for example, ferret skins), which is economical and fashionable. A double layer of fur makes the products warm, they do not wrinkle, do not deform, and are comfortable to wear.
There are several methods for obtaining fur "threads," each of which begins with cutting the skin or pre-prepared plate into narrow strips. The plate, formed from fur scraps or low-grade semi-finished product, is preliminarily duplicated with a thin thermoadhesive fabric (or thermoadhesive knitted fabric) with a pile.
In the first method, the resulting long fur strip is wound into a ball (for example, using a low-speed drill). After that, the first 60 - 80 cm of the fur strip is manually unwound, the edge of which is fixed with a staple on a flat board. The leather fabric of the strip is moistened and twisted with this same drill, slightly stretching it, and secured with a staple.

Next, the next section of the strip is unwound, the leather fabric of which is moistened, twisted, and secured on the opposite side from the initial fixation. Thus, the entire existing ball is gradually twisted into a fur "thread." If the resulting length is insufficient, two or more cut strips are joined together. The "thread" can be twisted with one or several frame threads (the twisting density is 4 - 6 turns per 1 cm of the strip length). The resulting fur "thread" is combed in a fixed position on a flat board, then released from the staples and wound into a ball; the twisted fur "thread" is ready for forming a fur fabric by knitting or weaving.
Another method of obtaining fur "thread" is based on wrapping a frame thread with a fur strip, which serves as a kind of core. The number of frame threads can vary, with the wrapping pitch being from 0.1 cm and more, and the wrapping is performed at any angle. The ends of the fur strips are fixed in a twisted state, and to form a "thread" of the required length, they are sewn together. The creator of the technique of "knitting" fur is the world-famous Canadian designer Paula Lishman. She made knitted items from rabbit skins. By cutting them into thin strips and twisting them so that the fur was both inside and outside, she invented "fur" yarn. Clothing made from such yarn gives a feeling of weightlessness, extraordinary softness, the absence of sharp boundaries, "dry" constructions, and contrasting color transitions.
The range of fur semi-finished products currently used to create "fur knitwear" is very broad. These are the skins of mink, fox, beaver, ferret, rabbit, and even Baikal sable. The best raw material is considered to be sheared and/or plucked semi-finished product. Coats and cardigans, trousers and jackets, dresses and skirts, shawls, vests, hats, and much more are knitted. To obtain a smooth, long, and continuous "thread," first-rate large-sized skins are used. However, bags, hats, mittens, and home slippers can also be successfully made from fur scraps or low-grade fur semi-finished products (for example, ferret skins), which is economical and fashionable. A double layer of fur makes the products warm, they do not wrinkle, do not deform, and are comfortable to wear.