I've got good news, and bad news. Which do you want first? How about the bad news: I can't pick a sock pattern to save my life, and I think I might have moths invading my yarn stash.
Ever since I finished the Retro Rib socks, I've been wanting to start a new pair. I pick a pattern, find yarn in my stash that's "perfect," cast on, and knit the cuff…. and for some reason it just doesn't work for me.
Finally, I settled on the Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks. How can you go wrong with Nancy Bush by your side? I had some beautiful hand-dyed yellow yarn from Lucia from the Project Spectrum yarn swap last year. I started knitting… everything was working out perfectly… then all of a sudden I noticed that the yarn coming off the skein was fraying in one place. I cut it and started with the new end. Then I came to a spot where the yarn was compeletely broken, like it had been cut with scissors. Then another. Then a couple more frazzled places. All of this and I haven't even finished the cuff of the first sock yet!
PLEASE tell me this is not moths!!!!
And the good news, you were wondering? How about a beautiful picture of a Shetland Sheep from my favorite photography blog?
I love the sheep pic! Too sweet!
No, no, NO! NOT MOTHS! Oh, the humanity! Actually, I don’t know if this is what their damage looks like, but I’m thinking about buying several boxes of gallon-sized ziplock bags.
Who are the new socks supposed to be for? That might help with pattern suggestions.
Oh no! Major suckage. I hope you find a workaround! I just cast on for the CFS and I’m in luuuuuuuuuuuuuv. Good luck!
Moths?! Noooooo!
Quick! Here’s an article on ridding yourself of moths. I wonder, I’ve never seen anyone try it, but I wonder if you could set an oven to the lowest setting (on mine that’s 200) and … bake the yarn for half an hour. Or would the yarn catch fire? Probably a bad idea. Are you in the market for a new freezer?
I’ll think happy cedar chip thoughts for you, and your stash.
(Adorable sheep, by the way!)
The comments don’t like my html!
Here’s the article:
http://knitting.about.com/od/yarn/f/rid_moths.htm
We did get inherit a used fridge/freezer for the garage with a totally empty freezer – I could stash all the yarn in there for a while.
Stick your yarn in the freezer — that “boring” kind of behavior does sound like moths to me. (boring like bore into something, not dull) Sorry to hear that. Yikes. Quarantine is in order.
Holy smokes. I get busy and go on hiatus and you have been making FO’s like a champ. I hope you don’t have moths either. I found 2 last night and I am getting very worried!
=:8
Yeah, I hear ya on the ‘inability to pick a pattern and stick with it’ thing. I feel like I’m getting pickier and pickier and getting hyper critical (in a bad, debilitating way)…
i had that problem with a ball of sock yarn from my recently finished leaf lace socks. the second ball of yarn had about 3 or 4 places where it was down to one ply. i too thought it was because of a critter, though i didn’t find any “evidence” such as a dried up body. also, that particular ball of yarn had a place where the yarn was a big loopy tangled mess … so, i’d like to think it just suffered a bit when it was skeined in the factory. (fingers crossed!)
I wonder if it’s just a bad skein or something… where did you get the yarn?