Cat Hair Up My Nose!

[playhookie]

Hi all

 

My beautiful kitty, although wonderful in every other respect, sheds hair all over my bed and sofa (which is where I crochet and of course are her favorite places as well...). It is getting to the point where everything I crochet is partly made up of grey cat hair too! What do other cat lovers do to prevent cat hair being part of the mix? I own several thousand lint rollers and vacuum every week, but it is still all over the place. Apart from kicking her out of the rooms where I crochet (which would leave the kitchen and the bathroom so obviously not practicable or very nice more to the point), what can I do?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Katie45694]

I just "accept" the crocheted cat hair as part of the joy in cat ownership! Sometimes I will pick obtrusive hairs out of a project and before "presenting" any gifts I give them a good work-over with the lint roller. That's all of the advice I know.

 

Katie:cat

[purplekitty]

Having 5 kitties myself, I feel your pain. I do the lint rollers and vacuum too. I actually vacuum my furniture with my Oreck vac. Other than that, there isn't much you can do. I put anything I'm working on inside a tote and/or plastic bag on a table when unattended, but other than that, I usually have to manually pick the stray hairs out. I've also found that after it's done a quick run through the washer and dryer helps too.

[Rosemary]

I have the same problem. I have two cats (one Maine Coon with longish hair) a black cat, and a little White- Westie dog. The dog is always in my lap and the Maine Coon kitty liks to jump up and do his "paw exercises" on whatever I am working on. The hair worked into the crochet piece only bothers me if it is a baby blankie. I have no idea of an answer though. I love my animals too much to exclude them from the room. So , hair is part of all the projects.

I must say, though, that yesterday I was losing patience with them all. I was trying to piece together my twenty , twelve inch square blanket. They kept laying all over the work in progress.

[thecrochetdude]

If it's for me i don't worry about it. If the item is for someone else I wash it in case they have cat allergies.

[CatsCradleCreations]

I agree with Drew. If the project is going to stay with me, then Sierra's hair stays. If I'm giving it away to family (my parents have 4 indoor cats), then her hair stays and I just let them know.

 

If, however, I don't know who the recipient is (like comfortghans) or I'm unsure of feline allergy status, I first pick out the glaringly obvious hairs and then wash the piece before gifting it.

[Empress Busy Bee]

Don't forget to brush your cats. Some like it, the rest learn to like it.

Also get a roller lint brush just for the cats and use that on them.

Brush/roller your cats once a week, more in the summer.

 

[MarvieN]

Yep, as everyone has said, cat hair is a fact of life =) I have four, all big shedders. Here's how I help control the hair...

 

Vac all furniture

 

I use sheets, blankets etc as throws/covering on the places they tend to spend the most time then I change or wash those weekly.

 

Vac floors regularly (for us it's daily)

 

Brush the kitty

 

We recently got a shedding blade, which is used on dogs (even horses) and my kitties love it. Once a week, they get combed out with that (have to be careful tho, hubby did one of the kitties so much he kinda went bald around his shoulders rofl) This has kept the shedding down tremendously! Hairballs too *g*

 

As for crocheted items... well, I just pick as I go and then wash the finished project and it goes straight into a sealed bag (if it's for non-cat owners)

 

Unless the project is going to someone with allergies I don't stress over it much. I shed just as much as the cats do and I am constantly crocheting one of my long hairs into a project. I don't worry about it unless it's something light colored that my hair will show on.

[Chrome Kitty]

If I'm making something for myself, I don't worry about it because I know it's going to be covered in cat hair anyway. If it's for someone else, I don't let the cats sit on me while I'm working on it and I keep all the yarn for that project in a plastic bag. I have to tie it up tight when I'm done for the night because they like to knead the bags of yarn and then lay on the yarn nest they've made for themselves. Still, despite my best efforts, cat hair still appears in all my projects. Just like a missed stitch, I think a hair is more obvious to the person who made it than the recipient.

[playhookie]

Thanks for all of that - good idea about the shedding blade MarvieN, I'll get one next time I do the catfood run at the pet shop.

 

I have to say Pandora (my kitty) loves being "rollered" and she adores the every-other day grooming I give her with the cat brush. She is a British Blue so has lovely soft short hair, but it is really thick and does get everywhere!

 

I wonder if I got a small sheet especially for my crochet work and had that on my lap so the hairs wouldn't have so much of a chance of getting crocheted in... Could be a good way of packing it all up inside the sheet and tying up the top. Would have to make sure that I always had the same side facing up though ;-)

 

Glad to know that I'm not missing any particular trick though.

[sunshine1977]

I don't have as much trouble with my cat as I do with my dog! I have a yellow lab with very coarse hair, and she sheds like the dickens!! I am constantly picking her hairs out of my work, off my clothes, etc...I brush my cat, so he doesn't shed to badly and doesn't hang around much when I am crocheting, but the dog is a totally different story!

 

Laurie:hook

[Mel]

I have a similar problem with my dog- if I leave my work unattended for even a moment he'll be sat right on it by the time I come back. I just tend to work on items that are for other people in my bed room since the dog isn't allowed in there or cos I tend to work snuggled up on the sofa under a duvet once the kids are in bed I'm able to work on some gifts downstairs.

[CarolL]

I have the same problem, we have 3 Siberian Huskys and 2 cats. They all shed but the dogs shed profusely twice a year. There is enough hair being shed at all times that we could make several new dogs. Stuff that I make that is being given to anyone I wash and immeditely package it up so that it doesn't get any more hair on it.

[pb&j]

I haven't read all the posts so forgive me if I'm repeating someone else - I've always had cats my entire life and know that some cats shed more than others! If your cat is a big shedder, then brushing definitely helps. All my pets have blankets to sit on. They love them. Just put a blanket wherever your cat likes to sleep most and she'll adopt it. Then when you want to sit down, you can move the blanket. When the blanket gets nasty, you can wash it. And of course, keep vacuuming up the hair.

 

It's kind of a pain but necessary. I also have to deal with the dirty doggy paws as well, and have old beach towels by the back door. C'est la vie!

[CraftyShannon]

My cat sleeps on my bed during the day, which is the same place I crochet most of the time. If she's not in the room, I just sit at the top of the bed, where she doesn't lay. Usually, if she is in the room, she likes to sit near me because she likes to investigate what I'm doing. Sad to say, I've been known to make her leave the room at times when I think she'll ruin a project. When I'm done with my progress, I always, always put my crochet project up where she can't get to it. She likes to take naps on my crochet projects. If the hairs don't bother me, her nails getting caught in the stitches does. Therefor, I always keep it out of her reach, but I did give her a crocheted baby blanket she can sit on to her heart's content. Funny, she refuses to use the one I gave her, much preferring the stuff I don't want her on.

[stormy]

I think I've been living with cats too long (my whole life)...

 

Not only do I get cat hair in my work, but also sometimes I find a strand of my hair as well:blush ....guess I shed too!

[maryann]

you know what... if you are giving anything you make to a friend.. they know your cats... and they know you ... and probably love anything you give them

 

Isn't it usually.. love me .. love my fuzzy friend??

I hope so.. my friends have to put up with a few little white hairs every once in a while, sometimes they are mine.. sometimes trixie's..

Maryann

[Luvmyrott'nboy]

I have a long coated Rottweiler and, despite having cats my whole life, I have never experienced shedding like this! Seriously, I find these looooooong black fluffy hairs in places that astound me!

 

I brush him (and use the shedding blade) daily, I bought a $450 Dyson vacuum, keep a miracle brush in every room and still live in a clouds of fluffy black hair.

 

I simply gave up. I yank the hairs out like it's another hand motion in the art of crochet:lol

 

But, he is the joy of my life so it isn't all that bad!

[playhookie]

Just thought that I would share with you that this morning, quite literally, my cat shoved her hairs up my nose quite deliberately...! ;-)

 

She did this by headbutting my nose to wake me up when my alarm went off this morning! Got quite a sore nose now (their skulls are really rather solid aren't they?).

 

Quite amusing really as she normally wakes me up by getting on my belly and starting to knead it with her feet - which I am now quite good at ignoring, particularly in the middle of the night. Those who say that animals aren't intelligent are quite nuts as she has clearly learnt a new way to wake me up...

[fishbaby]

Yes, one of my three girls is quite the headbutter too

 

I usually crochet in a room locked away from my cats but when I crochet in the loungeroom or somewhere they frequent I keep my ball of yarn/thread in a plastic container so it doesn't get furry and if I have lots of hair on my clothes I change them to minimise the amount that goes into the project.

[annaht]

I have two dogs, and as one happens to be a short-haired pit bull, his hair gets on and IN everything and is harder to remove than my Maine Coon's long hair, which brushes off or lint-brushes off fairly easily.

 

The other day, I bought some yarn, left it in a bag on my coffee table, and went to choir practice for an hour. I came home to find that the dogs had removed the yarn from the bag (the cats MUST have helped them with this - seems to have been a joint effort - as the bag was not eaten through or pulled off, just opened and the yarn removed) and dragged it ALL over the house like it was a rope bone. I was relieved to discover that it wasn't chewed or ruined in any way when I retrieved it, just kind of pulled out and not in a neat little skein anymore. However, as I started crocheting a nice scarf with it (and this was black yarn and my dog is a beautiful yellow-y color) I realized that his hair is ALL the way through the yarn. Ugh.

 

Bad doggies! Good thing they're cute!

[Luvmyrott'nboy]

I adore Pitties! They are so misunderstood...they are the sweetest, most loving dogs when raised by a caring owner.

[kariholtz]

I shed just as much as the cats do and I am constantly crocheting one of my long hairs into a project. I don't worry about it unless it's something light colored that my hair will show on.

 

OMG I am ALWAYS picking out my hairs from stitches!!

 

Since I have been mainly working on "The Beast" (Hubby's king sized afghan) Hambut has taken to crawling under it while I work on it

 

 

so it will be full of cat hair but since it's for Hubby I will just call it insulation and be done with it. (Hey it's Hambut's contribution to the blanket!)

With others, I do as everyone else, I wash and pick. 'Bout all you can do.

[annaht]

I adore Pitties! They are so misunderstood...they are the sweetest' date=' most loving dogs when raised by a caring owner.[/quote']

 

Absolutely! We love our pit... he's a little snuggler... we live just across the border from Ontario, and my husband is staging a one-person (or two, I guess, since I'll never go without him...) boycott of Ontario because of their pit-bull ban. He says that any place so narrow-minded won't get HIS money.

[seagull1993]

>> Hambut has taken to crawling under it while I work on it <<

 

And from the look on his face, he looks like he has already claimed it as his own and might be annoyed at having to wait for you to finally finish it for him! :-D