M#ths

Reaching the end of a three plus month eradication effort in my studio that started when I pulled out samples to re-photograph for a re-release of their patterns, and found three of them had moth holes.

Yarn stash has now been thoroughly examined for bugs, treated or tossed as appropriate, and is hermetically sealed into ziplocs, which are back in boxes on my ikea 5×5 cube shelf thing. If any of the vermin persist they are at least quarantined, and no new yarn should be damaged by their antics. In other news, I have way too much yarn.

Most of the stash seems fine. The affected skeins have only a couple cuts each, and there was very little frass, so we still don’t know what was doing the damage. Most likely it was a variety of critters. We found a few moths and moth frass, some mouse droppings, and I have been finding carpet beetles trying to migrate out windows. I need to treat my oriental rugs and figure out how to store my sweaters so they aren’t beetle bait.

Next task is going through the fleece closet, which will involve a lot of scouring. I’m going to make a bunch of pillowcase style zipper bags, so the fleece can still breathe, but vermin will be fairly well excluded.

If anyone local would like some raw fleece, I would be THRILLED to reduce the cleaning job, and teach fleece washing. Most of the fleeces I have were bought for breed studies, and I have pounds and pounds of fleece for which I only wanted ounces.

Also, I REALLY need to work through more stash. I should feed more to the loom.