A knitting friend recently needed to take her sick cat to the vet. The diagnosis: YARN the cat had swallowed caused the cat multiple health problems.
What do we often see in yarn advertisements but the quintessential photo of the oh-so-cute kitten and ball of yarn; this does not address reality. Cats and yarn do not belong together. If one feels they are unable to refrain from letting their precious felines play with it, DON’T LET IT HAPPEN ANYWAY!!!!! It gets caught in their teeth or they swallow it — all leading to dismal results. I have cats and I do not let them touch the yarn. I love them and don’t want to take them to the vet for something easily prevented.
NEEDLES/HOOKS AND YARN (as seen in first photo)
Then, that also reminds me of another quintessential photo that we see more often than not when knitting needles or crochet hooks are shown with yarn/wool. They are usually shown impaling a ball of yarn; it makes for an artistic graphic but, again, does not address reality. This is one of the worst things in the world you could do to yarn/wool; it will tear and/or split the yarn. Yes, sometimes this is relatively fixable, but the bottom line is that needles do not belong stuck in a ball of yarn. If you are afraid you will lose a needle when you need to leave your work, it is easy enough to find another method of storing work-in-process.
These are not opinions. They are realities.