A friend wrote and asked if I could spin cat hair combings from her furry kitty and of course I wrote back "you can spin anything with two ends." I hand spin pet fur combings and clippings for people all the time. I even have a site for people to hire me to spin their pet's fur: Pet Keepsakes. So she saved a baggie of cat fur and then noticed that the cottonwoods were blooming in her yard. She wrote back quoting my comment about "two ends" and asked if cottonwood could be spun also. "Why sure!" I said.
So she sent it on. It is spinnable, but like milkweed and Thistledown it is a shiny fiber with lots of silica. Its spins firm and a bit harsh for all the fluff one starts outwith.
As my friend wanted a small blanket made for the cat of its own fur with stripes of cottonwood, I added some regular boll cotton fiber to mix with the cottonwood down to make it hold up under the clawing cats do to bedding.
My process was simple. I plucked the cottonwood fluff off the stems and tried to hand remove as much vegetable matter as possible. Then I carded it with fine cards. I then mixed a ratio of 60 percent carded cottonwood with 40 percent of regular white cotton. I carded this until well mixed. For better control, I hand spun it on a supported drop spindle.
After I had enough to skein I boiled it like one would regular cotton and then let it dry under some tension. It dried to a nice off-white, softer than regular hand spun cotton.
It worked up better than I thought it would! Soon the cat will have its blanket of its own fur and cottonwood blossoms.
Just had to share this with you all!
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