Crafting with Cat Hair by Kaori TsutayaMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I know a lot of people -- even fiber enthusiasts -- who are squicked by the idea of using cat or dog fur in projects. I've never really understood why -- what makes fur from a cat or a dog so fundamentally different than hair from a sheep (wool) or from a goat (cashmere) or from a rabbit (angora)? Certainly cat and dog fur isn't as well-suited to most crafting endeavors as these other fibers, but I've never heard an objection due to the utility of the fiber -- it's always emotional in nature. Strange.
Crafting With Cat Hair obviously seeks to persuade people that cat fur is, indeed, a perfectly legitimate material to craft with. Cat hair cannot be spun into yarn (at least not easily, and at least not so far as I am aware) due to its short staple length, so the book's projects are all based on felting. Wet felting is used to create adorable cat-hair finger puppets; other projects are things such as book covers, trinket boxes made of recycled milk cartons, and coin purses, all of which are made of other materials (generally manufactured wool felt, or recycled/repurposed sweaters in one case) while the cat hair is used to create a decorative embellishment via needle felting. In these cases, the cat hair is really almost an afterthought to the "main" project -- one could easily make the base project and them embellish it with beads, sequins, or other crafty doodads rather than with cat hair.
The projects are alternated in the book with two-page spreads on cat-related topics: how to best brush your cat; how much do cats shed; how cat hair is nearly odorless; how to care for your cat-hair projects; and so on. There are also ever-so-vaguely LOLcat-ish pictures throughout and, at the end, bios of the cats who "donated" their fur for the pictured projects.
The book seems to assume a knowledge of basic crafting skills. For example, in the pincushion project, the instructions call for sewing the pieces of the pincushion together inside out, turning it right-side out, stuffing it, and then sewing the hole closed, but there is no specific direction given as to how to do this. Still, though, there are no projects in the book that are difficult, and while absolute beginners may need to consult other sources for tips on how to do some of these things, everything here is still well within their reach. One thing that surprised me, however, was that there was only one brief mention of how sharp felting needles are, and that one mention was towards the end of the book. While "don't poke yourself with the needle" is a safety tip that should (one hopes) go without saying, it is extraordinarily painful to get poked with a barbed felting needle (speaking from experience here!) and I have never seen a felting book that didn't mention this upfront.
I would have known that Crafting With Cat Hair was Japanese in origin even if I hadn't known that it was. It just feels Japanese, between the voice, the subject matter, and the almost unbearable (in a good way!) cuteness. There are some things that were not fully adapted for an American audience -- several of the recommended cat brushes are Japanese products (or, at least, Japanese websites were given as sources), and at one point, the author suggests storing brushed cat hair in a seaweed tin until ready for use. I wouldn't know where to find a seaweed tin if my life depended on it.
All in all, this is a cute book that would appeal to crafters (if only for the novelty) and lovers of the quirky -- and, of course, cat people. And I must admit, I have a sudden hankering to make little tiny finger-puppet doppelgangers of my two cats. I've often joked that I could knit an entire new cat out of the amount of cat hair I sweep up, and perhaps this is the first step towards that.
Copy sent to me for review by Quirk Books.
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