Cats and yarn...

[Sarah]

Does anyone else have a cat or other pet that loves yarn as much as you do? I'd love to hear your stories! Here's mine:

 

It is the cutest yet most frustrating thing. One of my cats (you can see his picture in my blog if you are interested) has a bad but cute habit of getting at my yarn, then dragging it through the house, wrapping it around everything imaginable, hitting every floor in the house. Even funnier, if he gets bored with it or can't get it to unravel, he takes whatever is left in the ball/skein and drops it in his water dish. Sometimes he will come back for it later and then drop it in his food dish. I've had to throw away several expensive skeins of yarn now.

 

I happen to find all of this hilarious and I know it is my own fault for leaving yarn where he can get at it. I really think he is just trying to ask me to spend more time crocheting. He is just the sweetest thing when I am sitting around crocheting --once he settles down he will just sit with me for hours under an afghan that I am working on.

[frogsrock]

aww thats too funny

 

my dog doesnt do much with my yarn

 

she thinks it makes a really good spot to lay though lol

if i have my skein on the floor she'll use it as a pillow (comes in handy for me, i can pull the yarn without the skein moving)

when im crocheting she likes to lay on me or by me

she'll eather get on my lap and stick her nose in it or lay near me

 

shes really funny with the baby blanket im working on... when i was at my grandmoms i was keeping the ball of yarn in a cooking pot and whenever i touched the pot she'd come running

i think shes got her eye on it lol, guess im makeing her one sometime:D shes never done that with any other project

 

i swear she loves pink, the baby blankets pink and she likes it... my blanket im makeing is purple and ocean and she doesnt care about it (doesnt mean she wont try to steal the finished product)

and i let her pick her stuff (i pick up a few things and hold them out to her... she puts her head on the one she wants, she usually goes for pink)

[Harvestar]

The cats here love wool. I don't use it much since I'm allergic, but they love to lay on it. They also bit the wool blend sock yarn off the loom I was using. grr...

 

But yes, they are very cute.

[lhasaapsolady]

One of my cats turned into a real bad egg, I've had to start keeping my craft room door closed. I got up one morning and Miss Charlotte had a field day in the middle of the night. Seems as if every skein she could find the pull end of she pulled. I know for sure it was her as she was sound asleep amid her muck when I went in. What a mess, strands hanging everywhere, and wrapped around the antique sewing machine. Now my room is off limit to all them.

[Lawless]

my cat loves to chew any threads which may be dangling from my worktable..

 

oftentimes, I come out in the mornings, and he's chewed the thread clean through, and he sits there looking so innocent as though I'm wrongly accusing him!..

 

gotta love - em though..

[ankey]

Oh my goodness Sarah, I have a puppy (a picture of her is in my profile) that does the exact same thing as your cat!

She isn't potty trained yet so I have to actively watch her a lot and sometimes I crochet so I don't feel so bored. If I accidently drop my crochet hook on the floor, she will stop anything that she's doing and run to get the hook like it's a play stick and run away with it! If I let some yarn down on the floor (not on purpose) she'll pounce on it, give a playful growl, take the yarn between her teeth and run all over the house. Even when she's thirsty, she'll keep the yarn in her mouth and drink water.

I've made her a couple of crocheted toys like different sized balls and a bone-shaped toy stuffed with fiberfill and she absolutely loves them! Gotta be careful to make sure that all the ends are very secure and no fill is poking out and that she doesn't ingest any yarn!

[Amy]

We have 5 cats. The youngest is a blue point Siamese. She's about 2 years old now. She LOVES yarn. It cannot be left out where she can find it. She especially loves the fluffy, eyelash, furry looking types of yarn. Once my 13 year old daughter left one of those "puff-ball" skeins out on the coffee table while we all left to go somewhere. We come home to find the poor skein in two separate "blobs" on the family room floor, connected by one very long string of yarn that had been run all over the place.

 

Abby had to spend an hour or two reskeining that yarn. Luckily she was able to save it!

 

This cat also loves to drop her toys in her water dish, so it's a good thing the yarn was still dry when we found it!

 

The other cats pretty much ignore yarn except when you're using it, when they like to chase it as it moves.

[frogsrock]

I've made her a couple of crocheted toys like different sized balls and a bone-shaped toy stuffed with fiberfill and she absolutely loves them! Gotta be careful to make sure that all the ends are very secure and no fill is poking out and that she doesn't ingest any yarn!

id be afraid to give that to my dog

because of her possibly getting confused that all crocheted things are made to chew

 

i also dont give her stuffed toy type chewies

 

my grandmoms dog got confused with the rag bones, she thought that all things with a thready end were made for her to chew so she went after the tea towels... she doesnt get those bones anymore

[Sarah]

Great animal stories--thanks so much everyone for sharing ! I grew up with dogs and never knew a thing about cats until my husband and I adopted the three we have now. It's nice to know I don't have an oddball cat. It's funny because the other two just watch him and play with the yarn trail he makes, but they will never take the lead. I still don't have the heart to lock them out of the room where I keep my yarn (it has a nice window with a good view of the birds in the yard).

[Sarah]

Ankey your dog is adorable!!!!!

[luckybmr]

I have caught my dog watching me crochet. He just lays down and stares at me and watches my hands move. He has a couple of times gotten into the yarn and I don't know why. He never bothers things I leave out and about unless it is food. Only thing I can figure is maybe he thought there were crumbs or something in the area and pulled the yarn out to investigate. Luckily he didn't destroy or eat any.

 

I cannot make him crocheted stuffed toys. His greatest pleasure in life is to take a stuffed animal and chew on it until he gets a little hole and then pull all the stuffing out. He then sits and waits for me to look at him and the mess he has made. Then he plays with the unstuffed toy and it becomes his favorite thing.

[andiM]

Yarn is like a magnet. If I pick up my hook or needles and start to get busy, the cat notices it like oooh I must go bug her. So he'll jump up on the couch and sit next to me and try to play with the yarn and my needles. When he gets tired (pretty quick) he will sit there on the couch next to me and stare at me... then I get "hmph" noises I call them "snorts" .. He snorts at me.. like mom move all that yarn over I want to sit on your lap. So he'll come over sit down on my lap while I hook (or knit) in ackward positions trying to either not smack him in the head with my needles or hooks or get cat hair everywhere...... does it every single time... it's like he's jealous of the yarn or something... Did I mention he's male too??

[Railbird]

My Miss Lilah loves yarn. She will walk by me and grab the end of the yarn and just walk off with it like that is what she is supposed to do!!

 

I've started keeping a decoy ball of yarn in my bag for her to walk off with - sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't.

 

Her latest thing to do when she wants attention is to walk up and lay down right on top of my pattern or yarn (or on my lap) and curl up like a little bowling ball and smile up at me as if to say "aren't I cute"! So I basically have to stop what I'm doing and pet her and give her attention. Once I get her settled I can usually go back to what I'm doing.

 

She isn't all bad, she does help with the laundry - she watches me sort, jumps in the basket to make sure I've taken everything out, meows when the dryer buzzes and I don't get to it on the first buzz, lays on top the towels to make sure they are folded flat.

 

 

One of my cats I had before her used to love to carry around crochet chains, but only during the cool months - Cuddles would start doing this in September and stop when spring came! He would bring them upstairs and downstairs and he would meow until you acknowledged that he had brought you the chain. I sure to do miss him when September comes.

 

[astridz55]

I don't have pets of my own but I have to be careful whenever I visit my in laws. They have 2 cats that enjoy my yarn. The one cat is 14 years old but he will have 'kitten moments' and go nuts. The younger cat ususally sees me and takes off. That is because my little boy is usually right next to me and the cat doesn't like the toddler.

The toddler is the one that I have the most trouble with when it comes to yarn. He will grab one end and tear off across the apartment. I try to make sure that I leave paperclips or other things in my WIPs so that at least he can't pull any worked stuff out.

I have found that if I give him his own yarn, a scrap of cotton usually, he leaves most of mine alone. He is so funny cause he will sit on the couch and put the yarn over his lap and say "buckles on!" And he will also put the yarn on his toy vacuum and call it his power cord.

[eurolyons]

Serenghetti is a fiber whore...really and truly...her "art work" is all over the flat here...I swear she's trying to make string art...she wraps her self up in it, drags it around, drops it, doesn't like how it looks, picks it up and moves it and drops it again...she doesn't seem to have a preference, if it's in string form, she's in love...and I definately am enabling her habit...but she does get into trouble if she grabs my project off the table...the last doily I made, she grabbed it several times (while I was working on it and while I was in bed) unraveling a good row and a half each time...little beast...but she's cute...gotta love her...

[tezcatlipoca98]

I haven't had much problem with cats in my yarn.

When we first adopted one of our cats she did find a skien of red yarn and took it from my room. It turned up in the living room, loopy, snipped up, yucky. After that she never really bothered my yarn.

 

The kittens we foster from time to time like to bother me when I'm knitting/crochet. The other night one of them got on the couch when I was stash busting and took a ball of red yarn (whats up with the red?) by standing over it then rolling himself off the couch. After it hit the floor he lost interest in it quickly.

[Calesmommy]

I have two dogs. They LOVE yarn. One night I had some sitting out and we went out when we got back my whole I mean whole living room was covered in yarn. They had wrapped it around the pillers on the stairs, the coffe table chairs TV every where. They must have been chasing each other with it. It looked like someone had a party. The other thing they do is eat my hooks. Including my brand new. used once hand made wooden one. They didn't get talked to for while after that. The worst part is my dasch. will go head first into my craft bag to find a skien he likes. I have to remember to put up all my work.

[Sylviaf]

My cats only like yarn if it is moving or because they know there will be a quiet lap for sitting. When I visit my daughter's apartment, we often find her yarn spread everywhere because her cat gets into it. (This cat has also learned how to turn off her computer if she leaves the room. She has learned to save everything!)

[cdngirleh]

My three cats are crazy for yarn! I started out keeping my yarn and current projects in an open wicker basket; let's just say that they greatly appreciated the nice new bed/playcentre that I had made for them. Now I keep all of my yarn in a big, clear Rubbermaid tote box; the kitties sit on top of it, and peer through the plastic at all the tempting yarn that they just can't figure out how get to.

 

I must say, though, that they're very well behaved when I'm actually working on something; they love to watch my hook pulling up all that pretty yarn, but they've all learned that they're not supposed to pounce on it when I'm working. I think the very loud "GYahhhhh!" I let out the last time the kitten jumped, full claw and tooth, on my lap to get at the yarn, was what really reinforced the lesson for them...

 

They also LOVE afghans. The two afghans that I have from my grandmother are highly contested sleeping spots amongst the three kitties. I'm thinking about making them some scrappy 'ghans, and putting them around the house so there's enough for everyone.

[MidnightStorms]

The two cats I live with (I wouldn't claim to own them, they own me) enjoy to play with my yarn while it's in motion. If that fails and I ignore them, they like to sit ON my lap and my project so that I HAVE to pay attention to them instead of what I'm doing. Crochetting around a cat is no easy task!

[myheartsdesire]

I had the same problem when I was living at home. The older cat just LOVED to drag my yarn through the house. It would be strung around EVERYTHING.

 

When I moved out, I was sure to leave a skein just for him to play with, since my mom doesn't crochet.

 

I miss that cat. He was adorable. When I'd crochet, he'd sit by the yarn and 'attack' it whenever I pulled it... the only problem is, he's going on 15 and can't see very well, so he missed it most of the time... but he sure tried!

[melenajade]

I have a cat, Mariah, who loves to lay on my lap while I crochet. I normally sit with my knees folded up beside me and she'll lay on my thigh/lap. If I stash my yarn by my side and knees, I can usually thread it behind her ears so she won't see it and attack it!

[Psykadelicangel]

One of my cats really enjoys laying with me as I crochet, but I often don't realize she is chewing on the yarn until I get to the soggy spot. The other cat thinks it is a waste of time, so she just grabs the whole skein and runs.

[Sahahne]

We have a dog who just loves to find a ball of wool and take it for a run. She particularly enjoys doing it while we're asleep, it's as though it's punishment because we're not awake and amusing her! She came out one morning with the wool somehow attached to her collar and the rest of it unravelled behind her, through the house and even out the doggy door. She sure had a lovely time with that!

 

She has gotten into my crocheted projects a handful of times, only when they are toys though! I made 25 mini octopus toys as gifts for my kindergarten class, and after finding about half of the toys all over the floor one morning, had to make it 26, one extra for the Molly dog! It's one of her favourite toys now, she drags it everywhere by one of the legs and shakes it so the rest of the legs flop around.

 

It's nice to know fellow crocheters have similar problems with their pets! Though some days, it's just so cute, I think it's all part of her doggy charm!

[Cinlee]

My dog SOMEHOW got a hold of a mermaid that I crochet ...I always place my items pretty high so he can't play with anything, but I don't know...he got this one! I came upstair and OH MY GOODNESS!! Miss Mermaids Head was on one side of the room, her arms were torn off, and he was coming downstairs SOOO happy with her body as if he caught a FISH! The stuffing was ALL OVER THE ROOM! what a mess!

 

Cinlee

 

P.S. I still let him play with the body for fun...