Sewing around cats

tweetykiss

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I love to sew and knit but never tried it yet with Avalon around. Is there anyone here who enjoys these hobbies and can work around the cats?
 

mrblanche

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Dottie often has help with her knitting, especially from Ella, who loves strings.
 
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tweetykiss

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Originally Posted by mrblanche

Dottie often has help with her knitting, especially from Ella, who loves strings.
Thanks, should I just keep a ball of yarn around her to keep her busy so that I can work on something?
 

carolpetunia

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The most important thing is to keep all your needles, pins, and thread absolutely out of kitty reach. Any one of those items could kill a kitty.

That said, it can be done -- after saying nonononono and gently relocating each kitty many, many, many times, mine have mostly accepted that needlework is a spectator sport.
 

rubsluts'mommy

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Both JoJo and Jack will attempt to steal my yarn when I try to knit... but I've given up trying to do that on the couch. The couch means lap time for JoJo.

As for sewing.... When I'm cutting and prepping stuff (such as cutting out applique bits a few days ago), they want to hang out... watch what I'm doing. My two don't care too much for the sewing machine... it makes noise. Not as much as my old machine... but it still makes noise. They do, however, want to be in the same room, or just outside of that room... if I'm active, they MUST be nearby... if I'm quiet, like right now at the computer, they go off to do their own thing. If I start yelling at the machine, they come and investigate.

Jack decided to get up on my cutting table a couple nights ago... I hadn't kitty-proofed it, as it had so much fabric piled up on it lately, you couldn't FIND the small stuff underneath... it's been proofed now... thanks to Jack jumping up there and batting at snap settings... you wouldn't believe he's nearly 7 years old... he's such a punk.


~A
 

weldrwomn

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When I was making my blanket, Marcie wanted to be on the blanket, on the sewing machine WHILE I was trying to sew. It was really annoying especially since the blanket was held together with pins.
 

trouts mom

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Originally Posted by WELDRWOMN

When I was making my blanket, Marcie wanted to be on the blanket, on the sewing machine WHILE I was trying to sew. It was really annoying especially since the blanket was held together with pins.
Ha! This would be Trout!
 

Ms. Freya

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Freya's pretty good. Mostly she comes running downstairs and lays down in my flannel stash while I'm quilting. Sometimes she likes to sprawl on my cutting board but fortunately she has not interest in my pins.

Cotton like sot help me lay out big projects on the floor. He's an expert at checking under my quilts when I'm basting them.
 

pookie-poo

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I love to quilt, but with these three....it's become an exercise in futility. My sewing room is in the basement. When I lay the fabric out on the floor to cut, Cleo decides she needs to be under the fabric, Maggie decides that she has to jump on the moving lump under the fabric, and Lola is over on the sewing machine table, systematically knocking every loose object onto the floor, and then batting it under furniture. If I lock them out of the basement and try to get some sewing done, they whine and cry at the door, and turn themselves into fur covered battering rams.
 

catnurse22

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My boyfriend crochets (yes, my BF, very manly, eh?) and both of the boys LOVE it. He usually ends up going to another room after a while. Oh and heaven forbid he leaves his yarn out...I've got a picture of Harvey celebrating that mistake,
. I'd post it if I could ever find my camera cord! Ah!
 

Willowy

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Kitties LOVE to help you sew/knit/crochet! I think I have a old picture of Fritzi after she "helped" with the crocheting....all tangled up in the yarn. It was cute, but a real pain to get untangled!
 

keycube

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I do a lot of sewing on my hockey goalie equipment, but it's all hand-sewing. And I dread it each time, because it means curious kitties and keeping a close eye (no pun intended) on the needle. But oh, do they love to lie down amidst the hockey equipment.
 

roobear

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Frank will sit next to me and watch but i have occasionally had to get soemone to distract Max cos i don't want him getting any thread in case he swallows it and chokes or something i always keep my pins and needles away from them.
 
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tweetykiss

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Thanks everyone for reading and answering. I love all the advice, thanks. Sounds like all of you have interesting adventures with the kitties while doing sewing and needlework. Trouts Mom, that is a very cute kitty.

I did figure that needles and pins can kill a kitty.

I have figured out when I can do my cross stitching and sewing. Since I now have a canary, when I put the kitty in her room, I can do my cross stitching. Now the sewing is in the basement, so when I do the sewing, I can take the canary down there to keep me company and Avalon can have run of the main floor since we do not allow her in the basement.
 

gloriajh

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Someone else mentioned this danger, too - if they start to eat the string, then they can't get it out once they've started swallowing it -- especially if it's a string on a roll of yarn -- BAD, BAD!

I watch for string, rubberbands, etc., that might be hanging around on the floor (or anywhere) to make sure that they're picked up - well, as best as I can --- scary little "innocent" objects.

So, when you're sewing - making sure that all the strings are picked up and put away can help keep your furbaby from harm too.
,
g
 
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tweetykiss

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Ever since I got Avalon, when something drops on the floor I immediately pick it up. I was not really mess messy before but I was never in a big hurry to pick up things dropped on the floor.

One thing I discovered last night. The wire to earplugs that belong to a CD walkman, well it is now torn up and we know Avalon did it and I am now concerned how much of it did she eat?
 

goldenmaia

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My cats really enjoy watching me sew. They are two years old right now though. When they were kittens it was /very/ difficult to keep them out of what I was doing. Lots of training later and my craft room is open to the cats.

Cutting out patterns is still questionable though.
 
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tweetykiss

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I am going to pull out my cross stitching pretty soon since I need the money. I will then find out how my kitten reacts.
 
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