Posted July 10, 2013 by Jonelle Patrick1 Comment Animals

Crafting With Cat Fur!

For the ultimate mottainai (“don’t let anything go to waste”), round up all those floating clouds of cat fur in your apartment and craft some nyan-tastic gift items!

Finger puppets!

Sweater hole patches!

Book covers!

Be forewarned, however, that even though the prodigious amounts of fur one finds drifting around one’s apartment suggests that cats are wool producers par excellence, after reading Kaori Tsutaya’s how-to book it’s clear that one might have to go into an auxiliary business if one wishes to knit a sweater for anything larger than a cockroach.

Fat cats, skinny cats, longhaired cats, short-tailed cats, even cats wearing t-shirts can be petted and adored — For serious fur farming, consider opening your own cat café.

CatFurCalendar — Harvest season coincides neatly with the months one would rather NOT be indoors with a felting needle and a pile of fur…

CatFurJars — …so if you’re serious about cat fur projects, you can sort those hairballs into jars, organized by breed and color.

Harvesting the raw materials is easy, although patience and planning are required. Try not to get yourself up against a gifting deadlin that might tempt you to just shave your kitty to get that last crucial mound of raw materials. — Harvesting the fur is easy, but patience and planning are required. Try not to get yourself up against a gifting deadline that might tempt you to just shave your kitty to get that last crucial installment of raw materials.

CatFurFeltHowto — Once you’ve hunted and gathered, get out your felting needle and follow these easy steps. I just discovered that this book has actually been translated into English! It’s called “Crafting With Cat Hair” and is available from amazon.com.

•

Read a novel set in Tokyo

The #1 hostboy at Club Nova makes a handsome living, whispering sweet nothings in the ears of women who pay him a fortune for the privilege. But the party’s over when Tokyo Detective Kenji Nakamura is assigned to investigate the death of…*read more*

Jonelle Patrick View All

Writing mystery books set in Tokyo is mostly what I do, but I also blog about the odd stuff I see every day in Japan. I'm a graduate of Stanford University and the Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, and a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. When I'm not in Tokyo, I live in San Francisco. I also host a travel site called The Tokyo Guide I Wish I'd Had, so if you're headed to Japan and want to check out the places I take my friends when they're in town, take a look!