THIS CAT IS C H O N K Y is a popular Facebook group with over 200k members, a place where people go to share cat-related videos and memes and speak to each other in that weird kinda internet speak where people go to ‘hecc’ and the cats are ‘thicc’ and ‘good bois.’

Image credits: Amanda Pirrone

Group member Amanda Pirrone, having gotten a hold of a felting needle, decide to share her flash of inspiration and its resulting masterpiece with the rest of the ‘chonksters.’ Needless to say, the post was a hit.

Image credits: Amanda Pirrone

Image credits: Amanda Pirrone

Having a neverending supply of material to work with at hand, Amanda brushed off a nice quantity of beautifully soft fur from her cat and set to work. For those of you who, like me, are unfamiliar as to what felting is exactly, howtofelt.com describes it as the “simple process of separating, tangling, and relocking animal fibers found in items such as yarn or wool.”

Image credits: Amanda Pirrone

“I am definitely a crafty person. I’ve crocheted for years and recently learned how to spin yarn from wool fiber,” Amanda told Bored Panda. “When I was spinning yarn I found that I kept getting cat hair in it! I wondered if I could actually spin cat hair into yarn itself since I certainly have an abundance of it around.”

Image credits: Amanda Pirrone

“I think it can be done, but it’s tricky because the fibers are so short and I’m a novice. I got the felting needle based on an idea from the book “Crafting with Cat Hair”, which exists, believe it or not. Felting is kind of like sculpting with the fiber. This was my first attempt at felting and it turned out ok!”

Image credits: Amanda Pirrone

“I’ve been saving the fur I brush out of my cat, like a totally sane person. The ick factor of cat hair comes from the dander and the thought of the clumps of fur you pull out of the vacuum, but I washed and dried it before working with it. We use other animal fibers in crafts, so it’s not completely nuts.”

Image credits: Amanda Pirrone

For her first time, Amanda’s results are mightily impressive! We assume that her kitty thinks so too, but the look on its face isn’t giving away too much in terms of emotion. “My cat’s name is Katya. She was… Unimpressed,” Amanda told us. “She sniffed it a lot and gave it a poke with her foot, and then just gave me a look of disappointment at what I had created. Not much interaction otherwise.”

“It was my first attempt so it was more of a laugh than anything else, I can’t believe how much attention it got. I really like the concept of creating something with the fur of a beloved pet, because then you have something permanent to remember them by. It makes it a little more sentimental and less creepy cat-lady.”

“I’m going to experiment with our dogs’ fur as well. My cat is so soft, but thinking of a scarf made with her fur is immediately making me think that it will be itchy. I’ve seen people online mix the cat hair in with other fibers that are easier to spin into yarn, so that’s a possibility. I have to at least try it out once!”

Image credits: Melissa Fox

Amanda’s project worked so well that it inspired others to create their own little tributes to their beloved pets.

Image credits: Melissa Fox

Melissa Fox went a step further, using food coloring to add realistic-looking eyes, earlobes and butthole. Nice! Although again, her actual cat’s reaction to its new friend seems more of confusion than anything else.

Image credits: Melissa Fox

Image credits: Melissa Fox

Image credits: Melissa Fox

Image credits: Melissa Fox

Image credits: Melissa Fox

Image credits: Melissa Fox

Image credits: Melissa Fox

Of course, this trend isn’t new. Last year, Russian cat lover Yulia Galitsina uploaded her artistic efforts to Bored Panda, with incredibly cute results.

Image credits: Юлия Галицына

Felted cat-hair crafts got a big boost in popularity after the release of Crafting with Cat Hair, the cat crafters’ bible by Japanese artist Kaori Tsutaya.

The book includes chapters on how to properly collect your cat’s hair, as well as cat-fur facts and fun projects including finger puppets, portraits, feline-embellished scarves, and coin purses.

Image credits: Юлия Галицына

Image credits: Юлия Галицына

Image credits: Юлия Галицына

Other uses for kitty fur include environmental cleanup, the fur is super absorbent for oil and has been used to help to clear oil spills. You can also leave it outside for birds, they love to use the soft, heat-retaining fur to line their nests with. Don’t worry, they don’t realize that they are ‘sleeping with the enemy.’

Image credits: Юлия Галицына

Image credits: Юлия Галицына

What do you think? Do you have a cat? Have you ever considered putting all that excess fur to good use? Let us know in the comments!

Image credits: Юлия Галицына

Image credits: Юлия Галицына

Image credits: Kristianna Marshall

Image credits: Kristianna Marshall

Here’s what people had to say about the quirky and creative trend

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