When I started my second Hedera Sock. I was irritated to find 4 or 5 points in the yarn where it appeared that one strand of the two had broken – lots of joins at the start of the sock 🙁
I dismissed it as a manufacturing problem.
Then when working on Emily, I had one ball with the same problem every 2 meters or so. The other balls were OK and it had been a factory sealed pack of yarn.
Another manufacturing problem?? I started to feel uneasy.
I asked the ladies on the Angelyarns forum what they thought….
We kinda concluded it wasn’t the most evil and heinous of creatures – it was a fault in the yarn. A scary coincidence.
Phew.
Then I decided to wash the blanket in Thug’s basket, where he spends most of his time, like this
Cat in a Basket – all he needs are a few chips and some tomato ketchup!
Under the blanket is an old feather cushion inside pure wool cushion cover I made years ago from a Kaffe Fasset, Tumbling blocks Rowan Membership gift – I love my cats enough to let them sleep on my intarsia 😆
I lifted up the blanket and…
EEEK! 😯
Yup – it’s moth damage -unless my readers can tell me otherwise?? There’s no chewed up wool or evidence of moths except the holes.
I am horrified. I might be infested. I have hundreds of pounds worth of yarn, possibly being devoured by merciless moth larvae. I have wool suits and cashmere jumpers !!!!
Much as I liked my Kaffe Fasset cushion – it has gone in the dustbin. Thinking about it – it was a perfect luxury hotel for moths. They like dark (covered by blanket), warm (by radiator), feathers (in cushion), animal fur (readily deposited by Thug) and Wool. 😥
I promise to buy Thug a new synthetic cushion for under his blankie.
I now have inspected everything I can think of and found no further evidence of moths.
Every wardrobe and stash repository (lots of those!) has a few cedar balls.
I have spent a fortune on ziplock bags (I used the food ones from Lakeland) and have hermetically sealed all my pure fibres in plastic.
It slowly dawned on my that the two balls of yarn I’d had problems with had been stashed in the same box on top of my wardrobe…
It’s an Ikea cardboard box with a big hole either end forming a handle – easy access and nice a warm for “Mothy” up there by the ceiling too.
And the factory sealed pack? It has “air holes” at regular intervals – oh Thanks, Rowan 👿
All the yarn in the box is now in plastic too.
Schrödinger (the little ginger cuddly cat) is guarding the box from future invasion (armed with cedar balls)
BTW, He’s called Schrödinger because he lives in a box. It’s a particle physics joke!
I’ll keep you posted if I find any more damage. 🙁
Oh, my very deep sympathy. I hope the damage is limited to that one box…
Love the Schroedinger kitty. A couple of years ago, my then 7-year-old son drew a tombstone with the inscription, “Here might lie Schroedinger’s cat.” Totally cracked us up. The sad thing? When DH put it up on the wall, not a one of his workmates got the joke. College graduates, all, too. Very sad.
HORR- I-FY-ING! I apologize for the caps and exclamation point. This post has brought out the worst in me. HOW AWFUL for you!
Susan be careful having pure wool in plastic bags as it can react
with the yarn. Put the yarn in cotton pillow slips and then
into the plastic but do not have them airtight.
eek! I had this problem a number of years ago. My solution was to hank and wash the entire stash a big job but definately worth it.
Hi Susan
Sorry to hear about your moth infestation. Apparently you should put the yarn in a bag in the freezer for a couple of weeks and this will kill off any of the nasty things. There is a thread on Ravelry about this.
Hope this helps.
Sharon
Yikes! Reading this post made me shudder, and I have to say that I’ve been and scoured through my stash, just to make sure that there are no unwelcome visitors there. I really hope that it’s nothing serious for you, and that you’ve now eliminated the problem.
How is Thug coping without his Kaffe Fasset blankie? You didn’t feel obliged to save a little piece of it, de-moth it thoroughly, and leave it in the corner of his basket as a comforter, did you?!
Josiekitten
Save some Demothificated Kaffe Fasset for Thug??
OHHH – I wish I’d thought of that before the dustmen came!
Thug is coping valiantly. He’s also putting a lot of effort into squishing the new cushion down into all the corners of the basket…it takes a lot of dedicated sprawling and laying still…
Susan
Hi Susan,
I happened upon your blog when I googled the Birch shawl. I had a peek around and saw Thug’s cushion situation. I’m not sure if Thug has ever done this but my three cats will suck on pure wool (apparently lanolin tastes like mother cat’s milk – not sure who figured this one out or if it’s just an urban legend) anyways, often my wool blankets, cushions and afghans have looked very similar to Thug’s after the kitties have been at them. Hopefully you don’t have/didn’t have moths after all!
Take care,
Cynthia Cotton
P.S. I also have Rosita in line to be knit and I appreciate you printing the error you found – I know I would have given up. Loved looking through you blog – beautiful and inspiring.