Conference misery::feline_v1

    What a gift to give someone who's allergic to cats!
    
    

    
    I saw a blurb on TV where a woman had knitted things from the hair of
    her collie, but have never heard of someone doing it with cat hair.
    Re: .1, I can think of a couple people that I would love to give a
    "gift" to... ;')
    
    

    Please, don't give me any ideas!!!!
    
    
    hea hea,
    Giudi

    I've heard of this too.  My dim recollection of how this
    works with wool is that its "carded" and then spun into yarn.
    There must be library books about how to do this.  You could try a
    little and get some idea of how much is needed.
    

      It all depends on the length of the hairs. If they are long enough,
    the hair surely CAN be spun into yarn.
    
      At some of the dog shows that I've been at, there is a lady who does
    this with dog hair and spins it. Contrary to what some folks believe,
    once dog hair has been thoroughly washe and spun, you will NOT smell
    like a dog if it gets wet! 
    
      Last show I saw her at she had various sweaters spun from dog hair.
    One in particular was made of Samoyed hair...it was softer than angora
    wool, and although this was a fairly large, bulky sweater, when you
    picked it up it felt like you had nothing in your hand...it was as
    light as a feather. She also said that you had to be aware that when
    you wore this sweater it was about 3 times as warm as a wool sweater,
    so you wouldn't want to wear it indoors much! 
    
      Pet hair--and I don't see why a long-haired cat's hair would be any
    different---is amazingly beautiful and soft when spun into yarn and
    knitted...
    
      I would have bought a sweater---but they were going for 150-300
    bucks!!
    
    John Mc

    
    	When I worked at a vet's, there was  a woman with angora 
    	rabbits who plucked their (loose) fur and spun it, she
    	had hundreds of rabbits...
    

    Re .6 - Angora goats, too......you actually strip the
    loose hair from the rabbits & goats, vs shearing it off
    like you do sheep.
    
    Lynne

let me see...if you had 50 persian cats, all the same color, and you combed
each cat every day, you'd probably get enough fur to card/spin/knit a sweater
once every, what, maybe six months?  Imagine that many persians!  You'd be
waist deep in soft, fluffy fur - and it would purr for you!

Seriously, I think it would work, but probably take a very long time to
get enough fur together for any thing significant....but, cats live a long
time and if you have the room to store the fur, why not?

    But why would you need the same color....you could do a persian blend!

     Re .8/.9
      That's the biggest problem...the quantity needed. If you have a
    single Persian, it would take you aobut two years to get enuff for a
    pair of mittens..;-)
    
      I spoke to this lady for a while, and she said that almost any hair
    that is long enough to spin can be made into yarn and knitted. The
    shorter the hair, the harder it is to spin though.
    
      As for the colors...you can mix or match. The dog-hair lady had some
    sweaters that were a mixture of various dog hair, and the color shades
    were really magnificent...very subtle shades of brownish-beige that
    were from a group of Afghan hounds, and others from Collies that were a
    mix of the white, brown and black that Collies have...the Sammy was a 
    striking white, of course, but the collie mix was absolutely stunning.
    
     Darn! Now I wish I'd have bought one!!
    
      JM 

The amount of hair you need is the EXACT amount permanently embedded in my
sofa.  If anyone would like some very nice seal and cream Himmy hair, please
contact me off-line....

Mary, who's 6 cats provide more than enough shedded hair....

    
    	re: .11
    
    	giggle giggle..... I have blue and cream himmy hair too, up
    	for grabs!  =)  You just have to scratch it off of my royal
    	blue coat....sigh....

    Geez, and all I have are shorthairs!
      :^)
    

    Ya Nancy...but you got enough of them!!
    
    

    I have plenty of orange tabby w/white hair available
    as it's shedding time...bring your own rake! :-)
    
    Lynne

    Angel has a new game - Somehow she stirs up the cat hair
    in the sun in the kitchen window.  She then sits up and bats
    at it and tries to catch it. 
      Nancy