Granny "Lyndall" Toothman
Monday, October 1, 2012 at 5:10PM 
Sweater made of dog hair by Granny Toothman at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, TN.
A woman from Williamsburg, West Virginia named Lyndall "Granny" Toothman made this sweater. She was born May 1, 1910 and died on July 13, 2002. She was raised to support herself and use materials from nature. She grew up with weaving arts all around her, but she really learned to spin and weave when Roosevelt issued a Works Progress Administration program to learn forgotten arts.
The sweater above is made of the hair from her Samoyed dog. The dog is North Siberian from the Samoyed Tribe of people in Russia. Granny claimed the dogs were exported to England and then West Virginia to herd sheep. She also claimed that the sweater is 100% waterproof. It took her a long time to spin the coat from the spring shedding of her dog on an old fashioned wooden spinning wheel and then knit. Granny said, "Well, all I can tell you is that the dog wore the coat one year, and I wore it the next."
This object is unique to Appalachia because the art of spinning thread and knitting is found historically in Appalachia. Also, Granny Toothman is a very unique person herself from Appalachia.
Granny was able to use her spinning skills to work at Knotts Berry Farm, Old Tuscon, and Cedar Point amusement parks. She attended the Appalachian Celebration festival in Morehead, Kentucky and from there went to be an artist in resident at Morehead State University. Granny's outstanding accomplishments help show that something incredible can come of something that might seem so "country" and "old-fashioned" to some people.
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