February 16, 2012

MOTHS!! A warning

At my house, I have a foot locker. A big foot locker. It's about 3 feet long and 2 foot high.
It is filled with some of the most beautiful yarn I have ever been lucky enough to run through my fingers. Lace weight shetland wool, 100% wool hanks, wool blends, silk and wool blends.
Filled from floor to top.
As I posted yesterday, I had decided to rip out the Birds Nest Smoke Ring and re-knit it with a finer yarn.
I was super excited as I got home from work and decided it was time to dig through the foot locker and find some nice soft, light and airy fingering wool. I went straight to the bottom. It's kinda of like going to the back of the closet to dig out stuff you haven't worn in forever. All the good and forgotten stuff was on the bottom.
I found a white postal shipping bag with the yarn and pattern for the Flirty Ruffles Shawl. You remember that one don't you? A beautiful lacey creation loaded with ruffles around the bottom. The yarn was soft and would make the perfect cowl.
But wait.....my ball of yarn looks like a porcupine! Ends sticking straight up all over the ball. WTH!
I started unraveling and pulled out strand after strand of chewed up yarn!! OH SHIT!
I started pulling out bag after bag of yarn, beautiful, soft, lace weight wool yarn. Do you know how many yards are in a ball of lace wght. wool??? A frikkin LOT!
As I sat in the floor in my closet looking at all my wasted yarn, I almost (almost) cried. I cussed,I threw things around, I ripped bags open and created one hell of a tangled up mess with the loose hanks that were sitting on top.
MOTHS!!
No live moths, no eggs, but the destruction of moths past was evident in my yarn locker. I am sure when I finally reach the bottom of the locker I will find little dead moth bodies littering the floor. GOOD! Bastards, I hope they choked on all that wool.
So, once I finished with my little hissy fit, it was time to get down to business. I called PB and asked him to stop by Wally World and get me some cedar balls and some of those huge ziploc bags.(better late than never)
Everything would have to be taken out, looked over and rewound to check for holes, eggs and anything else those little bastards may have left behind. 
As of last night I have had to throw out five hanks of lace weight wool that came with patterns for shawls. I have rewound 2 hanks of lace weight (which BTW takes for ever! Lots of yardage in lace weight.)into balls and placed them in a big ziploc. Since I rarely ever use my yarn for what it was bought for, there is no problem throwing a bunch of different yarns in one bag without the patterns.
Ultimately all of this means, no knitting for the next two weeks as I get everything out and rewound and stored back up.NO KNITTING! Now I really have it out for those mothy bastards. I was on a roll, my fourth project of the year and it is only Feb. Ugghhhh!
I don't know how much more I have lost, I will let you know the grand total when I figure it out.
Heed my warning peeps...........................................
A $3 box of cedar balls from Wally World can save you a lot of time and money later.
Buy them, use them, place them like garland around your front door and all your windows, wear it around your neck.........
Oh, wait, sorry, ....
Don't be like me, I thought my yarn was safe, in a locked foot locker in the back of my closet.
I don't know if there were eggs in something when it was shipped to me or if one got in the house,past the four rooms and closed closet door, under the lid of the metal footlocker to get to dinner!
Trust me, spend the $3, it's worth it.


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