Fur Real! Knit a Keepsake Made from Your Pet's Real Fur

It hangs onto your clothes, gets in your eyes and sometimes even flies into your drink. Let's face it, we all battle with pet fur. But to Pet Yarn Chic founder N'ann Harp, that fur is the key ingredient for a unique memento of a beloved pet. Her business spins pet hair into yarn, which can be used to make clothing, ornaments, throws and other accessories. Harp has catered to animal lovers since 2006 — all of them in search of a loving reminder of their animal.

Harp's company, which is based in Asheville, N.C., does all the work for you; All you have to do is collect the hair. Pet Yarn Chic will supply you with a starter kit ($49.95) which includes collection instructions and shipping labels. When you mail the hair (which can be from any animal), they hand-spin it into yarn and send it back to you (at the price of $10-12 an ounce) or weave it into the memento of your choice. The company has an extensive catalog of designs for clothing, accessories or wall-mounted art for your home.

The idea for Pet Yarn Chic began, appropriately enough, with a cat. One day in 2003, Harp, a self-described "cat person," observed the immense amounts of hair her fluffy white kitty, Tyler, would shed. "He would just be sitting there and he would kind of go 'poof,' as if the wind had blown through a dandelion, and he would walk away and there would just be this pile of hair," she recalls. "And I, just for no real good reason other than just cleaning up, started saving the hair."

Soon after, a friend of Harp's took the hair to a nearby craft shop and asked the women working there if they could spin the cat hair into yarn and they happily obliged. "It was crazy, sort of wild and everything has grown from that," she says.

Now, business is booming. "It's intimacy with our pets," Harp says about the concept. "I cannot tell you how many people have come to us and said, 'I have always known that you would show up. I have been saving hair for decades.' I mean, from animals that are long gone."

Cindy Briggs, who runs a doggie daycare center out of Richmond, Va., had a throw and a scarf made from the fur she collected over the 11-year life span of her beloved golden retriever, Carly (above). "I cried just to be able to touch a part of my girl again. It was overwhelming," Briggs says. "I placed the blanket over the back of the couch so I could just touch it when I went by or when I was thinking of Carly."

Both items help remind Briggs of the great times she had with Carly, who passed away earlier this year. "I’m moved to tears and so happy that I have something of this precious dog that will last forever," she says. "N'ann made that possible."

See more unusual pet items on PEOPLE Pets:
From Woof to Warhol! Turn Your Pet's DNA into Modern Art
Ashes to … Art? Painter Uses Remains for Pet Portraits

Amy Jamieson