If you're bored with clothes made of lambswool, cotton or alpaca this winter, a Melbourne spinner is offering an alternative – she makes garments from dog and cat hair.
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Marion Wheatland says public demand led her to start a bespoke business, Spinning Pets Yarn, creating scarves, jumpers and beanies from the fur of clients' pets.
Ms Wheatland says some people's first response to the idea – even her own son's – is that it's creepy.
But the finished products feel, and smell, no different to garments made from conventional wool, and are just as warm.
Ms Wheatland, a wool spinner for 20 years, was surprised but intrigued when May Battista, of Bulleen, found her online and asked if she could make her a garment from the fur of her standard poodle, Mango.
When Mango's fur had grown to six centimetres long, Ms Battista had him clipped and gave a large bag of fur to Ms Wheatland. The fur proved woolly and long enough to comb, spin and knit into a warm black vest.
Ms Battista wears the vest to work – and tells everyone it's made from her dog's fur. "People think I'm crazy. They say, 'What? Your dog?', but they don't understand. "I say, 'He's my baby, and I want to feel him with me all the time.'"
When Ms Battista's previous poodle, Milo, died, she was left with just a lock of hair. She wants more to remember Mango by.
Ms Battista has since had a large knitted shawl and a beret made from Mango's fur. She likes to remind the doubters: "But you wear wool, you wear sheepskin. So what's the difference'?"
Ms Wheatland says that, as with a sheep's fleece, the oils and dirt are washed off the fur, so it's as clean as conventional wool.
After the poodle venture, Ms Wheatland was approached by a man at the Royal Melbourne Show who asked her to make a scarf for his daughter from the fur of his Samoyed dog.
Ms Wheatland has since made a scarf for a woman with a Persian cat. She has also made beanies from husky fur for a dog club, and is knitting a jacket from German shepherd fur.
She is experimenting with the wiry fur of her son Matthew's Airedale terrier.
"I made a skein [of yarn] for Matthew for Christmas," she says. "He said, 'Ugh, that's creepy' and wouldn't touch it."
Price varies widely according to breed and condition, but a pet fur shawl can cost $1000 to make, a vest more than $200 and a scarf $60 to $70.
On Wednesday, at 6pm at Boronia Library Ms Wheatland will give a free demonstration of spinning pet hair and will answer any questions. Bookings are essential, phone 9800 6488.