Horrible discovery

A couple of times in the last few months I've been knitting along happily, when I've suddenly come to a break in the yarn that I wasn't expecting. I've thought 'that's odd...', joined the yarn, and carried on knitting. Then the other day I found a tiny skein of cobweb-weight yarn that's sat in the stash for years, and it looked sort of... messy. Rough. A bit tangled? I pulled it out and looked closer. There were lots and lots of little breaks in the thread, millions of ends where there should only be two. A cold shiver went right down my spine despite the warm wooly cardigan I was wearing... I had discovered evidence of the Knitter's Nemesis... Tineola bisselliella, the common clothes moth. Gaah!

Ok, deeeeep breaths. Nice, slow, deep, calming breaths. How much have they eaten? Where are they? How in the heck am I going to get rid of the little blighters?

Step 1: Paranoia. Check!
Step 2: Investigate, gather evidence. I tore the stash apart and peered closely at every ball and skein to try and see any suspicious signs. I found one other ball (of my best fine handspun, no less!) that had been chewed through in a corner. Nothing else. Hmmmmmm. Relaxing at this point would prove fatal - I'm not going to fall into that trap!
Step 3: Research. I read everything I can find about wool-eating moths on the internet. Some of it is just plain weird... However, there seem to be three options:

1. Freeze the stash. Tricky, there's a lot. And this aparrently won't kill eggs, only live larvae.
2. Heat the stash - cook the little beggars. Impossible with size of stash. Would take months of microwaving or steaming and I just don't have the time or the quarantine space for the stuff that comes out while the rest waits to go in...
3. Blast them with carcinogenic chemicals. Now, usually, I'm quite relaxed about chemicals, I'm not a hippy type, and the way I see it, I want the most corrosive sh*t there is to clean my oven so that I don't have to spend hours on my knees doing it. However, not in my yarn. Not in things that I'm going to spend hours handling and then wear next to my skin. No, I don't think it will give me skin cancer: I think it will itch. I've got quite sensitive skin.

Step 4: Plan. I'm going to freeze the lot, then thaw it for a few days (apparently this makes the eggs hatch as they 'think' it's spring - misapplied use of the word "think" if you ask me...), then freeze them again to kill any new hatchers.

Step 5: execution. One-third of my stash is in the freezer in carrier bags (for ease of handling). It's had 48 hours, so today I'll swap it over with the second lot and leave it bagged up in the garage to thaw out. I'm not risking having it in the same room as the untreated stash. Then in 2 days, the third lot goes in, then 2 days after that, the first lot again, etc, etc.

Then I will watch. And pray.

Just in case you're wondering, I have not seen a single egg or larva. But they must be there somewhere - adult moths do not eat wool. Only the babies. Now, they could have all grown up and left - but I'm not going to risk my beloved wool for the sake of a little work!

On the other hand, all this raking through the stash has mde me get organised and relise just how many treasures I had buried back there - I feel a yarn diet coming on. And you just don't even want to know how many UFOs I found.....

So near, and yet so far!

This picture shows me that I have completed 20 out of 27 repeats of the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. I decided on 27 repeats because I want a shawl that is more than 6ft wide. I'll find out if that is wise when I have one. We'll see. However, despite having knit four hundred little leaf motifs, (four hundred? Four hundred!) I have, in my complete insanity, decided to knit another 7 repeats... of a shawl that grows all the time. That means, my dears, that despite having knit four hundred little leaves, there are still three hundred and fifty-six to knit. I am seven repeats away from the end, yes: but I am only just over halfway there. 52% done, to be precise.
But the beads are looking lovely.
Another few rows after breakfast? It's sort of addictive...

Tired but happy

Status check: I have a sprained foot, a cut elbow, an unidentifiable painful area in my right bicep that I can't think of any reason for, numerous bruises and a strange ache in my back... but the holiday was great fun. A long weekend at Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest mucking about in the pool, doing paintball and archery, splashing round the lake on a pedalo, cycling everywhere and eating far too much. Most of the random injuries come from waterslides and rapids in the pool - we started having 'no rules' races and we all got a bit ruthless and enthusiastic. Ouch. Funny how the adrenaline stops you feeling any pain at the time...

There was some car knitting on the way up and back, but very little whilst there, simply no time lazing about - it wasn't that sort of holiday. Still, the FCSS is now at an exciting point - 16 repeats done, or exactly one-third complete! Cue updated amateurish diagram:

The yellow line is to indicate how far I have to go till I've done two-thirds. Incidentally, the shawl isn't changing colour, it's just to keep track of how far I've got each time. I'll leave you with a picture of someone we met in the forest:
Tree rat! He was cute, but I was keeping tight hold of my knitting, they can be wicked wool thieves!

Aharrrrrr me hearties!!!

No, I haven't got any pictures of me dressed as a pirate. Sorry. Willow does like to sit on my shoulder like a strange furry parrot, though.... No, I don't have a pic of that either.


Instead I have this highly technical illustration of where I'm up to with my Forst Canopy Shoulder Shawl. After some highly approximate maths, I think I'm about 20% done.

A hole and a sole, a sheep and a shawl...

What do you do when you discover you've walked a hole in your lovely handknit socks and you can't bear to throw them out just yet?

You dig around in your stash and find a pair of felt slipper soles you bought at a xmas market in Cologne about 5 years ago, and sew them on.
I'm glad I finally found a use for these! Who says I'm a hopeless hoarder? Stash is useful!
My felted sheep teacosy. Except he's a bit small for my only teapot, so he's a cosy for a jar of knitting gubbins in my craft room. He's cute, though, don't you think?
Baaa!
The turqoise FCSS is rolling along slowly... here it is with 9 repeats done. This makes it just under 2 feet, as you can see, and I'd like it at least 6 ft, maybe more - my wingspan is 6 ft exactly, and I'd like this to be a large dramatic shawl. I've got long arms, like my mum - she calls them monkey arms. I remember being confused aged 10 at school being described as a 'short rectangle' because my wingspan was greater than my height, despite being 5'6" tall - the tallest kid in the school by a long way. I've hardly grown (upwards) since primary school. It was weird being 14 when everyone suddenly caught up or overtook me! Suddenly I wasn't a giant in a land of munchkins any more!

Anyway, I decided today that this shawl needs beads. Never mind that I've knit nearly a third of its width without them, I'll scatter them on somehow and make it look deliberate (ish). But which beads? Decisions, decisions...
This is some of the beads. Not all of them. I didn't want to scare you....

I'm away on holiday this weekend, so I need to go and find a simple sock project to cart about with me. Off to the stash we go!

The Knitting and Stitching Show

Warning: this is a very picture-heavy post. Go and make yourself a cuppa and then come back.

Good cuppa? Go on, have a biscuit. You deserve one. Ready?

On Saturday I got up early, went and picked up my mother and drove up to the NEC in Birmingham for the Knitting and Stitching Show. Yay! We saw many weird and wonderful bits of stitching in many forms, though most of the exhibits requested no photography. A couple that didn't: A giant crochet coal reef, that is apparently travelling around and being added to all the time to raise awareness of endangered coral everywhere. Mad and very cool. Quite realistic forms, as well!Embellished bras - I can't remember what this exhibit was about, possibly breast cancer? Just guessing. These looked so fab though - if I had the patience I'd make one and wear it!

There were quite a few purchases as well, of bits and bobs that caught my eye and I just couldn't leave without. This lot was from knitncaboodle:Yummy sock yarn, DPN WIP tubes (I justify this by saying that I've been looking for these for a while... I'm fooling no-one). And two lots of gorgeous alpaca laceweight yarn that was amazingly reasonably priced. I just culdn't go without it. I bought two lovely heathered colours, a leafy green and a deep turqoisey blue. Both have already been cast on as Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawls: This is Annalea's fault, as she reminded me how much I enjoyed the pattern. I gave the first one to my mum, so I don't have one... The reason there's two is that I'm not sure about gauge. The green has been started on 3.75 mm, and I'm not sure if it's too loose. I want the leaves to show up nicely, but I also want a lovely lacy shawl. It looks ok pinned out here on paper, but held up to the light it loses definition. Not sure..... So I cast on the blue in 3.25 mm.... It's not hugely different, but I think I like it better for now, so I'm continuing the blue at the moment. I may end up completing them both, of course, given about 10 years...
Xmas coloured buttons were also purchased... not sure what for, various ideas. Maybe a button wreath?
Wool prefelt from art van go - this is destined to be a sheep teacosy. I'd show you a picture of progress so far, but there's sooooo many pictures already!

A hank of purple silk to spin from Oliver Twists: Mum bought me this, as she'd just bought herself a silk scarf. Mine is in kit form.
Mum also bought me this: an emboidery kit of a xmas tree saying 'merry xmas' in several languages. Apparently I had to have it, as I'm a linguist. Strange logic, but I do think it's lovely.
I also bought a silver (colored) bracelet from the Stef Francis stand: It had little loops all around the outside to attach beads, so I raided my stash when I got home, and came up with this:
It's really hard to photograph glass beads and siver! This is the best I could do. Funky, no? Here it is on the wrist:
That's it for today. There were one or two other things, but I don't want to overload you...

Sewing Friday

Today has been a sewing day. It wasn't intended to be, but I started this morning (quite late) by tidying up my craft room and sorting things into their rightful places, then hoovering. During the tidy-up I came across a large lump of curtain fabric. It was supposed to be curtains for hubby's study. We moved into the house 3 years ago, and his is the only room that still doesn't have curtains. Aww.... poor hubby. I should say in my defence, though, that I have made the curtains for every room except one in this house, and that making curtains is my least favourite form of sewing. After about 6 months he gave up and went and bought a blind, but a wave of guilt hit me today so I sat down then and there and made him his curtains.
...And that got me in a sewing mood. Also turned up in the tidying was a bag with some canvas and two appliquéd chickens, which my Mum gave me last week, as they'd been rattling round her cupboards for years and she wasn't going to do anything with them. So I got the machine threaded up with cream and fished out some cotton batting, and ta dah!!! A lovely strong useful chickeny bag. I love the chicken design, and the best bit is, I didn't have to do the fiddly bit!
I'm taking Mum to the knitting and stitching show tomorrow at the NEC - I'm not going to tell her I've made this, I'm just going to turn up carrying it. I bet she wants to steal it (back)!
There hasn't been a stitch knitted so far today, but last night at the pub I did one whole pattern repeat on the second jay sock. This was knitted under the influence of two large glasses of Chardonnay, so I'm not sure if I dare to look too closely in case it turns out to be drunken knitting and I have to frog the lot. Can't have one wonky drunken sock and one straight sober one!

The Willow diaries: addiction to catnip

Willow got another catnip mouse, because I enjoyed the speed of knitting a whole finished thing in half an hour.. this one's turquoise from some Lorna's laces I had left over from Sockapalooza.

He has a very firmly-attached tail for her to play with as well. Yesterday I tried to get some video of Willow going nutty for one of these, but it came out too dark to see. Today I tried in our bedroom with extra lights. Isn't she a star?

I think she'll have to have at least one of these in her xmas stocking. yes, she has a stocking, knit to fit her foot. It's up in the loft with the xmas decorations, I'll find it and take a photo sometime.

Other crafting today includes this funky stocking from a free pattern at http://www.fulloffluff.com/, and two more patchwork stars. I can't find the right colour buttons in my jar for the green one.

That's it for today! I've been lazy. :-D

First Jigsaw Jay Jitterbug sock done!

Ta dah!!! We have one finished sock. In accordance with standard procedure to minimise the dreaded SSS, I immediately cast on for the second one, but I've only knit about 5 rows. I love the colours and the stitch pattern, though I don't think they are perfect together: you have to look quite closely to see the jigsaw stitch pattern because of the strong color bands. I still like the socks though. It's rare I knit something fancy for me, I have almost all plain stockinette socks.
Here's a closeup: Now you can see the stitch pattern. I think this would look fab in a semi-solid. Maybe I'll try that next, although the list of projects-to-be is getting longer...
I fancied a bit of quick knitting satisfaction afetr finishing sock 1, so I whipped up this from some leftovers:
An amorphous red/orange/pink blob, with two bobbles. WTF?
A felted catnip mouse for my best kitty! The ears are a bit low down, but she won't care. I'll make her a better one for xmas. Might wean her off bringing in the real thing at 3am and releasing them under my bed!
I think she likes it! Tried to video her going bonkers with it, but it came out too dark to see. I'll try again with better light sometime, it's so funny.

Jay Jigsaw Jitterbug socks

I like the alliteration of these socks... Jay Jigsaw Jitterbugs. Or Jay Jitterbug Jigsaws? It's almost a tonguetwister, if you try to say it fast enough. Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry...
More christmas stars I made last night - just had to show these three off as the centre lines up so perfectly! (the other ones don't)
WI competition standard, here I come....

Thoughts of a man drowning in wool

I saw this meme - a questionnaire for hubbies of knitters - over at Annalea's blog, the passionate mind, (thanks for your comment yesterday, Annalea - I wouldn't have found your blog otherwise - it's good reading) and I just had to subject my darling hubby to it. In the interests of free speech and an unedited response, I went out shopping and let him fill it in. What do you think?

1)What is your favorite thing about my knitting?
That it makes you happy - which makes me happy. Also, that you don't notice when I switch the tv over from 'Pride and Prejudice' or some other girly trash to 'top gear' because you are engrossed in some complicated piece of knitting. When you do look up and wonder what has happened, you seem to be happy with an explanation that it has finished, saying to yourself that
"Time does fly when you are knitting lace." (Rotter! I thought something was up...)

2)What is your least favorite thing about my knitting?
Being woken up to be shown the latest bit of knitting, and having to fein delight. I love that you knit, I love that it makes you happy, I love that you enjoy showing it to people, but please wait until I've had at least the first cup of coffee - then you might get something more reasoned than "It's lovely dear... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz" (yes, but I have to share the excitement with someone, and the cat can't even manage this response!)

3)What is something I have knitted, that you recall is good?
That multi-coloured jumper (with the bands of colour going across it) that you spent months cursing, un-picking and re-doing just because the 'colour wasn't quite right'. I have to say that it's beautiful now, but it looked exactly the same before. Also, that really weird piece of knitting that you did that looked a bit like a star-fish, until you folded it just right, and a baby jumper kind of emerged - wow. (BSJ - Elizabeth Zimmerman)

4)Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby?
Knitters - no. You - yes. My mother is a knitter, and it isn't an expensive hobby for her - she loves acrylic. Why do you need all of those books presumably telling you how to knit something, and then you pretty much make it up from the top of your head anyway? What is so special about merino and angora anyway? (If you don't know, I can't tell you. Philistine.)

5)Do you have a stash of any kind?
Only pornography (I joke, I joke.....) (And the 6 billion nuts, bolts, rivets, drills, taps, dies, and other assorted stuff in the garage to go with the pillar drill and 2 lathes and 6 different types of hammer don't count, I suppose? To say nothing of the guns, ammunition, reloading kit, lead pot...)

6)Have I ever embarrassed you, knitting in public?
Never - I quite like it actually. I love it when people get used to you doing 'girly' hobbies like knitting, and then find out that you are good at other things, like welding and shooting. The fact that you come with me to places that are quite male-dominated, like shooting clubs, and sit knitting is great - especially when you shoot better than the men who have been gently ribbing you about the knitting. :-D

7) Do you know my favorite kind of yarn?
Lots? You showed me some yarn a while ago, and said that it was wonderful. You said that it was incredibly soft, but I couldn't tell the difference between it and all of the other types you have. You seem to be quite taken with merino, but you mentioned something the other day about 'combing a yak', or 'shaving a rabbit' or something - I wasn't really listening. Apparently you can only get it on the internet, and I need to sign a loan application so that you can get some. (Quiviut - the hair of the arctic musk ox. I'm staying well away, in case I develop an addiction, and we end up living under a bridge...)

8) Can you name another blog?
We have the 'Yarn Harlot's guide to the land of knitting' book in the bathroom at the moment, which is quite funny. I keep on leaving it open at the 'How to weed your stash' or 'five ways you can tell your stash has gone too far' pages, but you pretend not to notice. (Technically that's a book, but she has a blog, so we'll let you have that one)

9)Do you mind my wanting to stop at knit shops wherever we go?
Not really - it means that you can't complain when I want to go into a tool shop. One thing though - please stop being offended when I don't want to come in. If I say that I want to stay in the car and listen to the radio that's exactly what I mean. I don't secretly mean that I don't want you to go - it's just that I feel a little lost and out of place in them - it must be the yarn fumes. (OK - but you do understand that then you can't complain about how much I spend?)

10) Do you understand the importance of a swatch?
Not really - apparently it's something that you knit before getting started with the thing you actually want to knit. I think that it's designed to remove all of the enthusiasm for the real project out of you before you start. You knitted one once, and spent ages measuring it muttering things like 'can't possibly be right' and 'printing mistake' before throwing it away in disgust and getting on with knitting the jumper. Now I think about it, i've never actually seen that jumper - where is it? I do remember that we could both fit into it though. (This is a scandalous falsehood - I never finished it, it was obvious it was the wrong size when I ran out of wool the second time!)

11) Do you read my blog?
Every now and again - I like it.

12) If I didn't knit, what would be different?
I would be able to get into your room without wading through yarn; the house wouldn't be full of small pointy sticks; we could afford a new car; you would be as miserable as sin - on the whole, i'm pretty glad that you knit really. :-D (And I've got it in writing!!)

13) Anything you would like to add?
May I get back to work now? Thanks.

Shall I let him off, or prod him with some of my very many pointed sticks? Hmmmmmm...

Oh, and Annalea: to answer your question from yesterday, the new sock is in Colinette Jitterbug yarn in colour 85, 'Jay'. I love this stuff, use it all the time. It's soft, and gorgeous colours, easily gets a pair of socks for my large feet out of one skein, and is superwash so can even be machine washed, if you're careful - not that I do, I hand-wash them with all my other handknits. It's coming along: progress pic later.

Hey, did I blink and miss Summer?

I can't quite believe how poor the summer has been in the UK this year. I know we're not exactly known for fabulous sunshine, but we can usually count on two or three weeks of t-shirt wearing weather, even if we don't get many really hot days. This year? I think I've been out in short sleeves two, maybe three times. And I'm usually quite a warm person. This summer I've knitted a couple f cardigans, and bought a couple more, and been very glad of them! It's hopeless! I'm starting to think it's true: it's not global warming, it's global wetting - at least here in the UK. And we already get enough rain, thanks! My tall sunflower is still trying to brighten up the whole place, though: after its first big flowerhead went over, it had loads more little ones and now they're all out at once. Pretty!

Speaking of flowers, I got a huge bunch from Keir for our anniversary on Thursday - roses, chrysanthemums and tons of gerberas. I love these, they look like happy flowers. This time four years ago we were on honeymoon in Paris and it was HOT. The whole week was scorching, but our wedding day was so boiling hot that we all just sat around on the grass in the sun, melting - me particularly in my thick boned bodice and big full skirt! We're even happier now than we were then, though... even if the weather's rotten.

Cleite is slowly creeping on... three repeats of chart 2 done (pattern calls for 9).
A pair of 'über-funky' socks for my darling hubby: Knitted from Colinette Jitterbug in 'Mardi Gras' and a semi-solid red. Size 11 feet! Lots of love went into knitting these! Think he likes them though - he wouldn't take them off yesterday, and even slept in them! (I told you it's cold!)
Santa hat. Why? Just felt like it, really! I made it to fit a bust of Beethoven that was my Dad's, but I made it far too small! It'll fit someone at xmas... it can be a posh party hat for lunch.
Quite a lot of xmas crafting lately... a small stuffed patchwork star....
Patchwork tree done in squares and triangles, with gold silk star and piping... this is to hang on the wall as a decoration. Don't you just love my mismatched socks? Some of my first spinning and sock knitting, chunky but warm and cosy!

xmas fabric bunting, instead of paper chains or tinsel... very eco-friendly!
My Mum made me this a couple of years ago, and I love it to bits. It's so elegant and precise a design and her stitching is perfect as ever (my Mum is one of the few people ever to get 20/20 on a WI competition... they're incredibly nitpicky, but then she does re-do things a zillion times till it's right. Sometimes I think it's OCD).
My attempt: I adapted the dove from a picture I saw on the internet somewhere, and set it into a similar roundel to Mum's. My stitching is nowhere near as precise! I may have to practice...

Last but not least, new socks: Jigsaw pattern, by someone, can't quite remember who. I'll find the link tomorrow. I've adapted the stitch pattern a smidge to make room for my wider feet! Loving the swirly water-like effect. I can knit for me and not feel guilty now hubby's feet are warm. Yippee!