Crochet with cat hair

[veggiebabe]

Hi, I have three cats and cat hair everywhere.

It gets on my thread, and I end up crocheting it in to my piece.

Does anyone else have this problem, and/or a solution?

(short of shaving them that is...

Melanie

[LeslieG]

I have two cats and one of them is white. Needless to say cat hair is an essential part of all my crochet. I have found no way to keep the cat hair off of things, so, I stopped worrying about it.

 

I just wash everything before I give it an ignore the occasional hair. I did consider shaving as a solution but a naked cat is a sorry sight.

[mudpie]

Dang, I thought this was going to be a thread telling me how to put all that cat hair to good use!

 

Seriously, I have three cats, but I have never had an issue with cat hair getting mixed in with my knitting and crocheting. I never leave the skein or ball of yarn on the floor. It's always in a bag or bowl. And I always cover the bowl or bag when I leave it.

 

You can train cats, and mine know that MY ball of yarn is not their toy. I make sure to have lots of little balls of yarn (permanently secured so they never unroll, but leaving at least an 18" tail for playtime) for them to play with.

[The_Virginia_Hooker]

The only time i worry about any pet hair is if i'm making something for someone who has allergies to pets.

 

Other than that, i don't call the 'additional fibers' in a project as 'dog hair.' I just tell people that my dog helped me with my project.

 

(Although he puts out enough hair that if it were possible to spin it, i couold probably go into the sweater business.)

 

Sometimes those little sticky lint rollers help remove hair.

[Feederofthepack]

Everything I make has some cat and dog hair! Honestly, the cats love to lay on my WIP while I'm WIP-ing! I even made them a decoy project to lay on but they seem to know the difference!

[The_Virginia_Hooker]

Everything I make has some cat and dog hair! Honestly, the cats love to lay on my WIP while I'm WIP-ing! I even made them a decoy project to lay on but they seem to know the difference!

 

Ah, but in the pet brain, a WIP decoy is not nearly as great and a WIP sitting on a warm lap.

 

BTW, i love your screen name lol.

[Lov2Crochet]

Yes! A little bit of my cats and dog goes into every project I make. I don't leave my stuff laying around either but when I work on it my animals love to curl up in my lap to help out.

 

Before I give anything away, I always wash it and then use a lint roller to get any excess.

[susieq8579]

I feel your pain....I have a Yellow Lab :}

[The_Virginia_Hooker]

One thing i will say is that a lot of my projects involve dark yarn, so my dog's brown hair just blends on in.

 

Maybe if i sold my projects i could charge extra because my yarn contains 'natural fibers' lol j/k

[terrijo]

We have 4 cats and a dog so I keep my yarn in a plastic bag. It helps but it never fails that there are a few animal hairs in there---I've even found my hair in it. I figure nobody looks at the project as close as I do so if I can't see any at arms length they won't either.

[boo1]

I do color-coordinate my pets, though. I have a black Lab, a black and brown weenie dog mix, and a black and brown tabby. All strays.

 

Needless to say, I don't wear a lot of white.....

 

[Duckie]

Oh, my furbabies love helping with projects. So every project has furball fluff in it, so I wash everything and pick out the big obvious strands. If you are very picky, you could invest in a pair of tweezers and manicure scissors:D

[lucie]

Same here. All my cats contribute to my projects. I'm just glad fur is the ONLY thing they supply!

[Katchkan]

I have two cats that insist that I can't possibly work on a project without one of them in my lap. Both are long haired so I definitely deal with cat hair.

Someone suggested that to get rid of the majority of the hair. Run the piece in the dry for a few minutes. I do this before I wash it and block it. I run it for about 10 minutes on just air. It really does remove a remarkable amount of the hair. I haven't tried it on a yarn project, but with the thread it does seem to help.

[The_Virginia_Hooker]

Same here. All my cats contribute to my projects. I'm just glad fur is the ONLY thing they supply!

 

 

This is true, it could always be worse lol.

[christinascrochethaven]

Everything I make has some cat and dog hair! Honestly, the cats love to lay on my WIP while I'm WIP-ing! I even made them a decoy project to lay on but they seem to know the difference!

:rofl decoy's are not heated...

[christinascrochethaven]

I do color-coordinate my pets, though. I have a black Lab, a black and brown weenie dog mix, and a black and brown tabby. All strays.

 

Needless to say, I don't wear a lot of white.....

 

 

Black cat, black lab mix, brown tabby mix cat, grey cat....

 

Nope, white and off white are not the best colors....

[christinascrochethaven]

My favorite thing about my cats and puppy is: I get done with something or get home from somewhere; I sit down and pick up my crochet....then the animals come.... "Mom, you sat down...you must need me..here I am.":lol

[crochetluvknot]

I have 6 cats and i do the best i can to keep the hair off projects totes and in bags and bowls and what not around while im working on stuff but the stuff floats around and i just tell people cat hair is a condiment in my house i was before sending anything out that removes most of it but still a hair here and there i cant help i refuse to shave them and im a groomer lol go figure

[secretstasher]

I have long hair and I seem to put a bit of me into the crocheting so to speak. I tend to notice that I have an extra thread and usualy pull it out. I would be past caring if I had long haired cats just think the extra wool in there will go towards keeping the person warm. I would wash it then think whatever is left is not going to leave without a fight and who wants to fight. I would rather crochet lol.

And no don`t shave your cats they would probably gang up on you and kill you in the night and make you pay for their nakedness rofl xxx

[Real Deal]

All my crochet projects go into plastic bags and totes, and I keep rolls of masking tape all over the place. Masking tape will take off cat hair that defies the vacuum cleaner.

 

My cats have learned not to touch my yarn. I very rarely raise my voice, so if one of them does decide to dip a foot into a yarn bag or tote, I holler "A-a-a-a-a" as if I'd just seen a ghost. The guilty party usually hollers "M-a-a-a-a" and takes off at a dead run. I just say "Ma, alright. Stay out of Ma's yarn." And then they do.

 

Now if anyone out there knows how to spin cat hair ... h-m-m-m. I think I read years ago that cat and most dog hair is too short to spin.

 

Real Deal

[Elle]

Dang, I thought this was going to be a thread telling me how to put all that cat hair to good use!

 

 

Me too!!

 

DH and I have times nine and there certainly is no shortage of cat hair. I'm very fortunate, however, in that DH is a fanatical vacuumer, so the hair is in the vacuum bag, we don't have a lot of it hanging around. He has also trained the cats to let him vacuum them, and it works amazingly well. The only problem is they have come to like being vacuumed so much that it's difficult to do the carpet, because as soon as the vacuum comes out and they hear it start up, they materialize out of nowhere and start flopping down on the floor in front of it so he'll stop, take out the attachments, and do them. We have one :dog , a collie, and when she blows her coat twice a year there is hair EVERYWHERE! Makes the cat hair look like nothing at all! But for a large, hairy dog, if it's not shedding season, there's not even a lot of her hair to deal with because we keep up with the grooming. I do joke with him, though, when he breaks out the vacuum and tell him "don't worry about it, honey, that's why they call it FURniture!" He just giggles and then turns on the vacuum anyway.

 

Elle

[Super Granny]

I have 5 kitties 2 black, 2 gray and 1 tiger... they are not so bad with my yarn although they think anything I have crocheted is fair game for them to curl up on .I have to tape bags shut when I wash something and get ready to give it away... I found one of the darlings had opened the bag and pulled the end of the afghan out and was taking his nap on it.... the only "yarn" they like is my Plarn especially when I'm joining the pieces of plastic.. I have claw marks on my leg from one of the twins trying to catch the plarn as I was rolling it into a ball

[fluffypechey]

Hi I can relate to this thread. I have 7 cats all rescued, all different colours.

 

One is a Persian who moults chunks all the time.

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I think a little cat hair between friends is a good thing

 

After all its nice to share

[Serendipitycrafter]

The only problem is they have come to like being vacuumed so much that it's difficult to do the carpet, because as soon as the vacuum comes out and they hear it start up, they materialize out of nowhere and start flopping down on the floor in front of it so he'll stop, take out the attachments, and do them.

 

Elle

OMG that is hilarious!