Are you throwing your cat fur into rubbish removal? Knit a jumper instead!

When we humans brush our cats and dogs, we tend to wad up the loose fur and bin it for rubbish removal. According to the latest craze, however, this isn’t just an incredible waste of a valuable commodity, it also takes fur ages to decompose while producing methane gas and contributing to the rapidly escalating greenhouse effect.

Pet fur in landfill

If you’re up for an idea that’s more than a little out there, keep reading because apparently all this amazing dog and cat fur can be put to good use. Since the beginning of human time, people have been utilizing animal fur for clothing, shoes, hats, baskets, bedding, housing, and more! In fact, there’s even evidence that Neanderthals wore fur coats and covered themselves with fur blankets.

So let’s take a lesson from our ancestors and put that loose pet fur to good use instead of discarding it into the rubbish removal.

If you share your life with a cat or a dog, odds are you are already wearing cat hair or dog hair anyway… am I right? Of course I am… I am a pet person too. Instead of picking off their hair and binning it into the rubbish removal, perhaps while uttering a naughty expletive or two, why not embrace the annoying hair and turn it into something fashionable. In case you haven’t heard about the latest trend from across the pond yet, turning pet hair into clothing and keepsakes is actually a fast-growing fashion craze so you’ll be one of the “hip and cool” people wearing your furbaby’s fur!

How to spin pet fur into yarn

The first step on your way to pet fur fashion icon is to save the fur from your brushings and the fur you collect from your pet’s bedding. Over time, even short-haired cats and dogs shed a great deal of hair! To wash the fur before storage, place it in a basin of warm water, add a small squirt of dishwashing liquid or pet shampoo, swish it gently, and rinse with one or two more warm bowls of water. You can then spread it out on a towel to dry.

Try not to pack the fur down too much when you store it. In fact, it is better to use a cardboard box rather than a plastic bag to store your clean fur. Plastic traps moisture which can actually mildew your stored cat hair or dog hair and you don’t want to let all your hard work go to waste, do you?

Making clothing out of cat fur and dog fur

As mentioned above, making clothing out of cat fur and dog fur is becoming increasingly popular. People seem to love the idea of keeping their furbaby close to them all day and or immortalizing a beloved pet, rather than binning their incredibly soft fur in the rubbish removal. Don’t believe me? There are heaps of pictorial tutorials and YouTube videos out there showing you exactly how to turn your pet’s fur into yarn.

If you are super serious about wearing your furbaby, you can also take online classes that will teach you the lost art of spinning fur into yarn. If you have more than one dog and or cat, you can even combine the fur to make a mosaic yarn! How extra is that?

Spin, spin, spin like Rumpelstilzchen

To learn how to turn pet hair into yarn, do one of these keyword searches in a search engine:

– how to spin pet fur into yarn
– how to spin cat hair into yarn
– how to spin cat fur into yarn
– how to spin dog hair into yarn
– how to spin dog fur into yarn

Once you have pet fur yarn, you can crochet or knit just about any type of clothing: hats, mittens, scarves, vests, sweaters, ponchos, slippers, etc. Now, when your friends or co-workers can’t resist touching your extra soft Maine coon sweater, and they ask you, “Oh, that’s really nice, what’s it made from?” You can say, in a hip and cool tone of course, “chiengora” or “chatgora.”

Chiengora and Chatgora – your new fashion vocab

Chiengora is a portmanteau word. “Chien” is the French word for dog and “gora” comes from angora. It’s a real word already in usage… don’t believe me? Google it! Likewise, “chat” means cat in French so “chatgora” would be yarn made from cat fur. Not too many people are using this word yet but go ahead… be a trendsetter! You could also call your cat fur hat a “chapeau le félin.” Now, that’s so fancy dancy, you’re ready for a royal wedding!

In case you’re not the crafty crocheting type, you still don’t have to put your pet fur in the household rubbish removal or the garden waste! You can easily find people to spin your cat fur or dog fur (or a combination of both) into a yarn and even sew you something amazing from it. Local farmers markets, craft markets, and CraigsList are all good places to find a local person to do this for you. Or simply check out Etsy or Fiber Artists Marketplace on Facebook to find a pet fur spinner.

One Last Thing…

Before you bin anything in rubbish removal, please consider calling Clearabee instead! These guys have grown to be the biggest on-demand rubbish removal service in the UK because they go really out of their way to find a good home for the rubbish they collect, rather than taking it to the landfill. No matter what type of rubbish removal you have, give Clearabee a call to discuss their terms and how they can divert your rubbish from the landfill!

Now let me know, though, would you turn your cat or dog fur into a jumper or scarf? I know it sounds a little out there, but technically it’s no different than wool from a sheep! 

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