Blanket Making

[tallyollyopia]

To start with our house has six cats; Rose, Princess, Spot, Ra, Slipper, and Asia. They are all problem children for this thread. The other thing you need to know is that I make things. Normally I make yarn blankets and comfort quilts, but my grandmother asked me to make a couple of receiving blankets for women in the church. Clearly I can't make comfort quilt  receiving blankets (comfort quilts are made from the clothes of the people around the person requesting them), since there's not really a good way to control quality there. So what I did was I got two types of fabric; I got plush flannel and satin. I'm using the satin (hopefully) for a lining for the blankets. Here's the problem--the cats love satin. All of them. From the way they act you'd think that I'd rubbed the two yards of satin with catnip. They roll on it, they rub against it, they scratch it (I've had to get replacement satin twice). 

How do I stop this? I've tried setting aside the old satin so that they play with that, I've pulled out satin from my comfort quilt collection (you'd be surprised) of scraps--nothing. They like the fresh-from-the-craft-store satin. I can't make it in a room, because only two doors in the house close and neither of them have enough space in them for me to make the blanket in them. What do I do?!

 

[tallyollyopia]

Rose and Ra on Blanket.jpg

• tallyollyopia
• Mar 12, 2016

How do I stop this from happening?!

 

[talkingpeanut]

I think the only thing you can do is give them something even more appealing to do.

 

[tallyollyopia]

Like what? I've had the other humans in the house try to distract them with wand toys--that's how I lost the last yard! The cats got excited and began kneading the satin.

 

[nansiludie]

 
Like what? I've had the other humans in the house try to distract them with wand toys--that's how I lost the last yard! The cats got excited and began kneading the satin.

Can you contain the kitties in another room while you make the quilt and then put the quilt away? 

 

[margd]

It seems to me that you are going to have to decide between putting all the cats in the rooms with the closed doors while you work on the blankets, or not making the blankets at all.  Is there any other place you could go to make the blankets?  You mentioned you're doing this for your church - do they have an activity room with a big table where you could work?  

 

[Columbine]

Have you tried thoroughly spraying one of the ruined satins with catnip? Older satin plus catnip might just trump new satin without catnip. That's all I can think of...other than shutting the cats away while you're working.

I craft a lot too, so I'm well used to cats being 'helpful'. Luckily the only fabric things I've made are doggy jumpers and a fabric bag for a friend who has cats (and so didn't mind about random cat hairs etc). I do seem to keep 'losing' feathers though I really hope you can find a solution

Love the pic though :9: There's something irresistible about cats on satin :heart3:

 

[Caspers Human]

Isn't there a song, "Cats in White Satin?" 

 

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
Can you contain the kitties in another room while you make the quilt and then put the quilt away? 

The only rooms with doors are too small for the cats.

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
It seems to me that you are going to have to decide between putting all the cats in the rooms with the closed doors while you work on the blankets, or not making the blankets at all.  Is there any other place you could go to make the blankets?  You mentioned you're doing this for your church - do they have an activity room with a big table where you could work?  

They do, but the church is in another town and it's hard enough to get there once a week. Maybe the library would let me use a whole table? But they've been trying to cut down on the number of people who aren't there for books, so...

 

[tallyollyopia]

Have you tried thoroughly spraying one of the ruined satins with catnip? Older satin plus catnip might just trump new satin without catnip. That's all I can think of...other than shutting the cats away while you're working.

I craft a lot too, so I'm well used to cats being 'helpful'. Luckily the only fabric things I've made are doggy jumpers and a fabric bag for a friend who has cats (and so didn't mind about random cat hairs etc). I do seem to keep 'losing' feathers though

I really hope you can find a solution

Love the pic though

There's something irresistible about cats on satin

Normally I crochet squares and sew them into blankets. I can work around the cats then, easily, and the cats don't attack the yarn like the do the satin. (They'll bat it around and roll it across the floor, but they don't seem to love it like they do the satin.)

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
Isn't there a song, "Cats in White Satin?" 

 

If there is, I know where the inspiration came from. 

 

[Caspers Human]

Do any of you guys knit or crochet?

Casper's girl-human crochets.  He will often walk in the room and see the yarn dangling and wiggling and suddenly go into attack mode.  It's not a problem, per se, but she does have to contend with the cat while she works.

I'll occasionally come into the room and girl-human will be on the sofa, crocheting, with the skein of yarn at her side and Casper curled up next to her, playfully pawing at the yarn as it wiggles by. 

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
Do any of you guys knit or crochet?

Casper's girl-human crochets.  He will often walk in the room and see the yarn dangling and wiggling and suddenly go into attack mode.  It's not a problem, per se, but she does have to contend with the cat while she works.

I'll occasionally come into the room and girl-human will be on the sofa, crocheting, with the skein of yarn at her side and Casper curled up next to her, playfully pawing at the yarn as it wiggles by. 

Cats can help with a crochet project. Sometimes. My little guys have even (rarely) untangled the yarn for me just so they can watch the blanket being made! 

 It doesn't happen often, but it's cool when it does! 

 

[nansiludie]

 
Do any of you guys knit or crochet?

Casper's girl-human crochets.  He will often walk in the room and see the yarn dangling and wiggling and suddenly go into attack mode.  It's not a problem, per se, but she does have to contend with the cat while she works.

I'll occasionally come into the room and girl-human will be on the sofa, crocheting, with the skein of yarn at her side and Casper curled up next to her, playfully pawing at the yarn as it wiggles by. 

I do. Have been crocheting for some time, just picked up knitting.

 

[hatchytt]

I do. Have been crocheting for some time, just picked up knitting.

I've mentioned in another post my tendency to simultaneously crochet and floss Hades' teeth.

 

[nansiludie]

I've mentioned in another post my tendency to simultaneously crochet and floss Hades' teeth.

hehe, I bet that's a funny sight.