How to Keep a Cat Out of Your Yarn With a Crochet Bag

Every crocheter with a cat knows the exact moment: you set down your WIP to answer the phone, and when you come back, Pickles has claimed your skein as a toy. A yarn tail is the best toy in the house, until it is wrapped around a chair leg, under the sofa, and halfway to the kitchen. I have frogged more projects than I care to count because a ball of yarn rolled away and came back tangled. If that sounds familiar, the fix is not a bigger lap or a sterner voice. It is a bag that closes.

I have been crocheting since I was nine, and I picked it back up seriously about six years ago when I retired from the library. These days I make baby blankets, granny-square throws, dishcloths, and amigurumi for my grandchildren, plus hats for a local hospital charity drive. My cat is a seven-year-old tabby named Pickles, about eleven pounds, and he will chase any loose yarn tail in the house. So when I started testing the MYBAGZING Expandable Crochet Bag Organizer, I had one question: can it actually keep the yarn in and the cat out?

Step 1: Pick a Bag That Closes All the Way

The first thing I learned is that an open basket is not a solution. A basket is where yarn goes to wait for a cat to find it. Pickles can reach into anything without a lid, and he treats a basket of yarn like a personal buffet. The MYBAGZING bag has a zipper closure, and that is the whole point. When the bag is closed, there is no opening for a cat to investigate.

The zipper on this bag is smooth and easy to work, which matters more than it sounds. I have arthritis in my right thumb, so a stiff zipper would be a deal breaker. This one opens and closes without a fight. The bag measures 13.5 inches long, 10.5 inches wide, and 16 inches tall, and it expands another 3 inches of height when you need more room for skeins. When I have a blanket WIP in there plus two extra skeins, the zipper still closes.

Before this bag, I tried a ceramic yarn bowl I bought at a craft fair. It worked beautifully for about a week. Then Pickles discovered the slot where the yarn feeds out, and he figured out he could hook a claw in there and pull the whole skein onto the floor. The bowl did not have a lid, and that was the problem. A yarn bowl is a lovely thing, but it is not a closed container. If you have a cat, you need something with a zipper. I also tried keeping my yarn in a cardboard box with the flaps folded shut, but Pickles learned he could push the flaps open with his head. The MYBAGZING bag solved both problems because the zipper is out of reach of a cat's paw and there is no flap to push. That is the whole argument for a real closure instead of a hope and a folded piece of cardboard. I have used this bag every day for the past three weeks, and I have not had to untangle a single skein. It has earned its spot next to my recliner, and I do not see myself going back to an open basket.

Step 2: Put the Yarn in the Bag Before You Sit Down

The habit that saves me the most trouble is putting the yarn away before I start, not after. I used to keep my current project on the side table next to my recliner, which meant Pickles had access all day. Now the yarn lives in the bag from the moment I choose the colors until the project is finished. The bag has six compartments, so I can keep the main skein, the contrast color, and the small bits for amigurumi separate.

The bag is made of wool, which sounds fancy but is actually practical. It is soft enough to sit on the floor next to my recliner without scratching anything, and it holds its shape. The weight is only 3.5 ounces, so the bag itself is not adding strain when I carry it from the den to the car. I take my projects to my quilt group sometimes, and this bag is light enough to toss in the back seat.

Step 3: Run the Working Yarn Through a Grommet

This is the part that sold me. The bag has grommets designed to let the working yarn feed out while the bag stays closed. You close the zipper, thread the yarn tail through a grommet, and crochet straight from the bag. The skein stays inside, protected, and the only yarn the cat can see is the single strand moving toward your hook.

Pickles still watches that strand, I will be honest. But a single moving strand is much easier to guard than a loose skein, and when I stop for a cup of tea, I just pull the strand back through the grommet and close the bag. The grommets also keep the yarn from tangling, which is a real gift when you are working with two colors at once. I run the main color through one grommet and the contrast color through another, and they stay separate.

I learned this the hard way on a striped baby blanket last spring. I was using two colors, and I kept the second skein loose on the side table because I did not want to thread it through the bag. By the end of the evening, the two strands had twisted around each other so badly that I had to cut the working yarn and start the row over. Now both colors go through the grommets, and I have not had a tangle since. The grommets are smooth, so the yarn slides through without catching. I ran the main color through the grommet closest to my left hand and the contrast color through the one nearest my right, and the strands stayed separate all evening. When I needed to stop, I pulled each strand back through its grommet and closed the zipper. The whole thing took less than ten seconds, and Pickles never got a chance at the yarn.

Step 4: Close the Bag Every Single Time You Stop

This is the step that actually keeps the cat out, and it requires discipline. I close the bag when I get up to answer the door, when I refill my coffee, and when I go to the bathroom. It takes three seconds. The zipper is smooth enough that I do not dread it, which is why I actually do it. A bag that is annoying to close will sit open, and an open bag is just a basket.

I learned this the hard way. The first week I tested the bag, I left it open on the floor while I went to make lunch. When I came back, Pickles was sitting inside it. The yarn was fine, because he had only been in there a minute, but it was a good reminder that the bag is a tool, not a magic spell. You have to use the zipper. Once I got in the habit, the problem disappeared.

I also learned to keep the bag close. It sits on the floor to the right of my recliner, within arm's reach, so I do not have to lean over to close it. When I am working on a big project, I tuck the strap behind the leg of the side table so the bag does not slide when I pull the yarn. That sounds like a small thing, but it means the bag is always exactly where I left it, and closing it takes no thought at all. A habit only sticks when it is easy. I tested this on a Wednesday evening while I was making a hat for the hospital charity drive. I got up four times during that hour, once for the phone, once for coffee, once to let Pickles in from the porch, and once because I heard a car in the driveway. Every time, I closed the zipper before I stood up. When I sat back down, the yarn was exactly where I left it, and I did not lose a single stitch. It is the closest thing to a cat-proof project bag I have found.

Step 5: Give the Cat Something Better to Do

A closed bag does most of the work, but I have found that Pickles is much less interested in my yarn when he has his own entertainment. I keep a small basket of his toys on the other side of the den, and I toss a crinkle ball across the room before I settle in to crochet. He bats it around for a while, and by the time he is done, he is ready to nap on the arm of the sofa instead of stalking my project.

This is not about training the cat out of his nature. Cats chase moving things, and yarn is a moving thing. It is about making the yarn unavailable and giving him a better option. The MYBAGZING bag holds up to 5.3 pounds of yarn, which is more than enough for a baby blanket and a matching hat, so everything I need for an evening is in one place and out of his reach.

What Else Helps

A few small habits make the bag work even better. I keep a pair of small scissors and a tapestry needle in one of the six compartments, so I do not have to get up mid-row. I also put a lavender sachet inside, which keeps the wool smelling fresh and does not bother Pickles at all. And when I am working on a big project like a granny-square throw, I use the expandable height to add 3 inches of room, which keeps the zipper from straining against a full load.

If you carry projects around, the shoulder strap helps. I take my current project to my quilt group on Tuesday mornings, and I like being able to sling the bag over my shoulder while I carry my coffee and my keys. The bag is light on its own, and the wool fabric does not slide off my shoulder the way a slick nylon bag would.

The shoulder strap is more useful than I expected. It is long enough to go over my shoulder but not so long that the bag bangs against my hip as I walk. Last Tuesday I took a granny-square throw to my quilt group. The bag held the throw, two extra skeins, my scissors, and a small notebook, and the zipper still closed. I set the bag on the floor next to my chair, pulled the working yarn through a grommet, and crocheted while we talked. Nobody had to ask me to move my yarn off the table, and when I packed up to leave, everything went back in the same bag in under a minute. That is the kind of quiet convenience that makes a project feel like a pleasure instead of a chore.

The zipper is the whole difference between a yarn bowl and a cat-proof project bag. A closed bag is a boring object to a cat, and boring is exactly what I want.