Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Tragedy of the Wool Kind

Hello,

   Today's One-a-Day post is being postponed: 1. because I didn't actually make any hexagons this week (I have a bit of a knitting deadline at the moment) and 2. because I found out today that I have a moth problem in the downstairs stash.  I honestly can't think of anything more tragic that could happen to a knitter's wool than finding moths making their home in it.  I am grossed out beyond words.
   When Mom and I were cleaning out the basement storage room today, I pulled out a drawer that had some yarn scraps and a roll of wool roving in it that I had used for making thrummed mittens a few years ago.  I seen a flutter of moth wings and nearly fainted.  I got Mom to get a big garbage bag and we dumped the whole drawer's contents into it, sealed it up and threw it out of the house.  I then bagged up all other wool, wool-blend and animal fiber yarns and put them in the freezer.  The yarn had been in storage drawers so they were open to the air and not completely sealed.  I must have been living under a rock, because I had never heard that I should be storing my yarn in airtight containers.
   Right now I'm not sure what to do.  Thankfully most of my good yarn is stored upstairs (three flights away) from this stash, so none of it is affected.  Should I be freezing all the acrylic as well?  There is quite a lot and it won't all fit in the freezer at one time, so should bag everything up and then do it in batches?  Do they like acrylic?  How about cotton?  Should I just throw it all away?  There's quite a bit of yarn, but most is acrylic. I'd be sad to have to get rid of it, but if that's what I need to do, I can do it.  I had been wanting to whittle my stash down, but this wasn't exactly what I had in mind....
   I can't get to the store until Thursday to buy new sealing Rubbermaid containers, but when I do all yarn, no matter what it is, is going into these containers.  In the meantime, I'm sending Mom to the store for loads of Ziploc bags.  
   Has this ever happened to you?  Any advice?  Oh man, what a day....


xoxo

6 comments:

  1. Oh boy what a find. :O( Sorry you lost some yarn. I have no idea what to do. Hope a golden crafter can answer this for you. Did you post about it on Itty Bitty? Maybe someone can answer that for you?

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    1. Thanks Stef! I did post about it on Itty-Bitty and I've gotten some advice, I've also been doing some research :)

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  2. The Target here in MN sells huge ziplock bags. I have used that before.

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  3. I'm sorry to hear about your fiber catastrophe! I know little to nothing about ridding the stash of moths...I do remember reading a while back on the Yarn Harlot's blog something about de-mothing...maybe do a google search with "yarn harlot" and "moth" and see what you come up with? She always has great advice.

    My dad brought me some wool roving that he'd had for about 40 years...he stored it in a cardboard box in his basement...I didn't want to hurt his feelings so I took it...but I kept it far, FAR away from my other fiber, and then threw it out when he left.

    Good luck!

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    1. Thanks Rae Lynne! I got out all my Yarn Harlot books and found the story about the moth. It's given me some good guidelines to follow. I'll search out her blog too because I think she's mentioned it more than once.
      Good call on throwing away the roving!

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  4. So sorry to hear about your trauma. Thanks for posting this because I'm now much more aware that I need to store my yarn more carefully. I hope you are successful in your "de-mothing", without having to toss out more stash. I' do have most of my yarn in containers, but not all. I'm going to get out those huge ziplocks I have and put them to good use.

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