In a way, Peg Jackson says, spinning dog hair into yarn is sharing.

"People would say, 'Oh, sharing dog hair - give me a break!'" she says, smiling.

But she goes on to explain that if she uses her own dog's hair, she's relieving him of something that's making him uncomfortable, enjoying her hobby and giving friends and neighbors a gift of her own making.

A shedding collie led Jackson to spinning about 23 years ago. Someone told her she could spin the shed coat, and she thought to herself, "You know, I've always wanted to learn to spin."

She and her husband took classes at Casper College - he learned to weave, she learned to spin - and she started collecting dog hair from her neighbors, friends, and people at her church.

"I got more hair than I bargained for," she confides.

Jackson got enough dog hair, in fact, that she was able to make a knee-length "dog of many colors" coat that's all shades of cream, gold and brown. She found an antique mink collar for it, and now she wears the coat in the winter when she walks her own dog.

"It's very warm," she says. "People ask me, 'Well, but when you wear it, don't dogs follow you?' And I tell them, 'No, it's all been washed.'"

But despite the almost overwhelming amount of dog hair, she loved spinning.

"It's my saving grace," she says. "It's something that's always there for me when I need that kind of training for myself."

She likens it to life.

"It's soft and airy - oooh, there are too many holes, too many avenues. It's softness being spun into firmness. You're getting in control of the fiber, and one avenue is the finished yarn you can use to make something of value. It's cleansing - it makes life easier. Your mind, body and spirit are whole again."

Since she learned spinning, she's worked with many different fibers: wool from sheep and llamas, dog hair and camel hair that she had to send away for.

The softest she's found is rabbit hair.

"It's almost like what you think a cloud would be," she recalls, and says if you find the right rabbit, it will sit in your lap while you pick out the down and spin it.

Peg bought her first spinning wheel, called a "gossip wheel" because you can pick it up and take it along with you while you visit, from Don Wood, a Casper man who used to make spinning wheels. She and the wheel have been in almost every school in Casper, she says, teaching about spinning. She shows the students how to use vegetable dyes and how to card the wool, and she lets them try spinning. When she has a dog that behaves - her newest dog still needs some etiquette training - she takes him along and lets the children pick out the down. She's also demonstrated spinning at the state fair and at Fort Caspar Day.

"Spinning is almost a dying art," she says, "just like tatting - although spinning has come back a little bit."

She likes to knit, quilt and paint, too, and she has a table loom to weave on, but spinning is her favorite.

"It probably relaxes me more than anything else when I get all tied up in knots," she admits.

Though Peg has made clothes, scarves, hats, coasters, and the famous dog coat from fibers she's spun, spinning hasn't lost its charm or its mystery for her.

"I'm always looking for new materials to spin," she says, her eyes sparkling. "I'd like to find some buffalo hair. I guess I could always go up to Jackson and pick it off a fence."

Contact Laurie Creasy at (307) 266-0581 or laurie.creasy@casperstartribune.net.