Friday, May 2, 2008

Cat Fur Garments



I took some new photos of my cat fur spinning and knitting experiments from years ago. Above you see the cat fur spun on my spindle (I find it easier to use a spindle), plied, and knitted up in a scarf (top) and mittens.



These mittens are brown but actually the fur came from a black Persian cat I had named Pumpkin. Her fur was wonderful to spin - it could be up to 5 inches long on her tail and it had a crimp in it.



This scarf is a mixture of fur from Pumpkin and my Himalayan cat Bosco. Bosco's fur was almost as long as Pumpkin's but extremely straight and slippery. It was so slippery it was difficult to spin by itself so I mixed it with Pumpkin's fur for this stockinette scarf. The combo of furs always makes me laugh because they hated each other's guts in real life but now they're together for eternity.



I made some simple mittens with a folded cuff and peasant thumb with Pumpkin's fur. These have felted over the years but they are very soft and extremely warm.