Aftermath

Hello,

Yesterday I was able to get to the city to buy some clear Sterilite containers, so I now have all the upstairs stash re-organized and completely sealed up.  I ran out of containers for what is in the basement, but in the meantime, I'm going to bag everything up and put it into quarantine and keep an eye on it.  This yarn would be the acrylics that were not near the affected yarn.  All things in close range of it were thrown away and the rest went into the freezer where it will stay for a week (to kill the moths), come out for 3 days (to hatch the eggs), then go back for another week (to kill whatever may have hatched).  (Which is what I learned I should do from doing some research.)  If anything shows any sign of moth bodies or eggs or anything of the sort, it will immediately be thrown away - I don't care what it is.  I've read that you can do things like re-freeze the yarn or heat in in the microwave, then wash it and re-skein it, but in all honesty, I would not be able to knit with yarn if I knew it had bugs living in it at one time, even if they were not there now.  I'm just like that.  I have to stop here and say that the yarn that is in the freezer never showed any signs of moth activity.  The roving was the only thing that did, and I threw that away, along with everything else in that drawer.  The yarn in the freezer is only there for precautionary reasons, not treatment.

I've already gone through the downstairs stash and thrown away everything I am not attached to or think I will use in the near future.  And I think I might make another pass through it today.  This whole episode has made me take a good look at what I have in my stash and evaluate if I will ever use it, and if not, out it goes.  Looking at the positive side, this has been a good push to finally do the stashing clean-out that I've needed to do for a long time.

If I have learned anything from all this that I would like to pass on to you it would be:  always store your yarn in airtight containers.  I wish I had gotten that advice from someone, so I am passing it along to you.  Also, I would suggest storing your WIPs in those big Ziploc bags.  Moths don't care if you've already started to make something with all that yummy yarn.  And also, when you purchase yarn from a yarn store, it might be a good idea to put it into it's own container, or plastic zippy bag for a while to make sure it doesn't bring anything unwanted into your stash.  It's probably best to err on the side of caution.

Have a great weekend, and take some time to do something that brings you joy!
xoxo