The Enemy & Some Preparations

Can you believe this?

That blob, up there on the railing?  A moth.  MOTH!  The sworn enemy of all things wool.

It had the audacity to fly in the front door last night when we walked in.  I stopped to take its picture before eradicating it (ok, i really  made a fool of myself climbing up to get it so I could put it outside. It really was beautiful, as many enemies are).

Because of my fear of moths/stash yarn, based upon a scary blog post I read years ago, I have always been a sort of storage nazi.  I store my yarn in huge trash can sized ziploc bags, with lavender sachets in them for good measure.  Some of it is in air tight cedar lined storage.  And, the bulk of my undyed and hand-dyed yarn is in cedar lined cubbies in a tightly shut (think wine cellar, but for yarn) closet off of my studio.  Still, that unearthly fear of moths lingers.  It is the eggs that do the damage — adult moths lay their eggs in yarn and the larvae eat the fibers.  So swift removal of the adults from any area with yarn in it is necessary.  I've never been able to figure out who is male and who is female when it comes to moths, so I view any moth sighting with great terror.

With the moth out of the way, I can move on to over yarn news.

I'm leaving on a child away at school visit/college tour with other child trip this week, which of course requires careful yarn preparation.

Needless to say, I'm taking the Manos Silk Shrug.  One sleeve down, the last one to go.  Then all I have to do is put it together and knit the (rather extensive) edging.

I'm also planning on working up an eccentric little scarf.  I purchased this gorgeous coiled yarn a while back, and have been trying to decide what to do with it ever since.

It isn't enough to use on its own, so I have dyed up a skein of kid mohair to knit with it — using the thick coiled yarn on the ends and bits in the middle, with the kid knit up at a very loose gauge.  I have a sort of vague picture in my mind — something short to go right around the neck for a bit of mid-winter color.  (You can see the inspiration my garden provided if you look at the background, as I have carefully hung the yarn so you can see the early fall color)

I also have plans to work on Juliet, which I have forsaken because she is impossible to knit while talking with children or other ballet moms — I'm thinking the quiet of the airplane is just the right thing.  I've also tucked some sock yarn in my bag, because Donna, the evil owner of my local yarn store, seduced me into knitting a barn raising quilt.  That is more than enough for a week, but I will doubtless tuck in a few other things — just in case.  You know, what if you were on that jet blue flight that sat on the runway for 12 hours?  Running out of water is one thing, but OMG!  Can you imagine running out of knitting?

Leaving you with two other lovelies from my garden.  Have a wonderful week.  I'll be checking in to post with my IPhone, so expect some wonky pictures and off beat, short posts!