Quarantine

Not me - my yarn.

I went upstairs to get a skein so I could start the Wendy Johnson Mystery Summer Shawl (I'm planning on using my skein of red Posh Yarn Martha) when I spotted what looked very much like a clothes moth in the bag where I keep my fibre for spinning.  You can imagine my horror, I'm sure.  I haven't been able to identify which type of moth as I squished it pretty damned quickly.

So, all my 'good' yarn's been quarantined for a while.  I have four freezers in total (excessive, yes, I know).  One chest freezer in the garage, one upright 6 foot freezer in the kitchen and then two smaller freezers in the garage.  I won't bore you with the story of how we came to have four freezers - we just did. 

Fortunately, it's around March that my mother phones me to say that the 'lamb lady' who lives in the next village has phoned her to ask if we'd like a butchered lamb in a couple of months, which means June, so one of my freezers was already half cleared out to make way for either half a lamb or one-and-a-half butchered lambs (Mum can't now remember exactly what she ordered).  So this morning I quickly cleared the remaining drawer and armed with a roll of freezer bags and supermarket Bags for Life, got to work shaking out skeins and balls, putting them in bags and then in bigger bags and stuffing them in the freezer.  I couldn't fit all of it in, so the next step will be hanging skeins on the washing line and finding the mesh washing bags I bought to put in socks and underwear so they wouldn't get lost, eaten or tangled in the washing machine (rarely use them though - if at all) so I can put balls of yarn and fibre in them so they can hang on the line in the sunshine (moth larvae don't like bright light, apparently - and I've done some extensive reading on clothes moths this morning).

Fingers crossed everyone that I beat the little blighters.  I think I'm more worried about this than I was when my daughters got head lice at the same time!

The downside is that the currently-unused en-suite bathroom (it's waiting to be renovated) is obviously not a good place for yarn storage as it's too warm and doesn't get enough air circulating (it's small and the window's tiny) so I'll have to find somewhere else to keep it.  The upside is that this has taught me that I need to check my stash regularly and give it a turn over and shake-out and that I should do the same with the shelves where I keep my wooly garments as well.  Vaccuuming inside wardrobes and under furniture is also a good idea, especially as with central heating and global warming, People Who Know Lots About Moths believe that the little whatsits now breed all year round.