Creep show

There are no pictures in this post.  There is not even any real knitting content, though there is some coincidental talk of fibers and spinning.  I mention this only so that all of you who care nothing for the status of our battle with moths can just skip on by, and we’ll see you later in the week when the fun stuff comes back.  For those of you who are gluttons for punishment, hiya!  Welcome to hell.

I wish I could say that it seems like only yesterday, but two very, very, very long weeks ago, demons descended upon our home.  Mothdemons.  Foul denizens of a fiberholic’s hell. We hate the mothdemons.  They suck.  The cats, however, thought this was a great idea.  They loved the mothdemons, and as their particular version of love involves claws and teeth, we encouraged them to continue loving the mothdemons. We even paid them to…in tuna. That’s right, kill a moth, get some tuna.  It’s fabulous. If only that were enough to make our home safe from them, it would be grand. But it wasn’t.  We also discovered that we had not one, but TWO infestations.  That’s right folks, clothes moths AND pantry moths.  At.the.same.time. I don’t know which gods we offended, or how, but it must have been bad.  I’d also like to mention, just in case they’re listening here, that we’re really, really, really sorry, and we PROMISE we won’t do it again. 

So for the last two weeks, in addition to much, much tear-inducing work, house renovations, and family visits, there has been a T.O.N. of inspecting/cleaning/tossing/freezing/inspecting/cleaning/refreezing going on at Chez Obsession.  The upside is that the pantry has been well and thoroughly cleaned out. The down side is that we lost fair bit of food (mostly to my own paranoia, but you know...moth larvae, ick), and there is now a fairly complicated yarn/bean/rice/flour/fiber freezing and re-freezing schedule on our fridge.  All rugs have been taken outside and beaten until we cried and then cleaned thoroughly.  All furniture has been vacuumed, pillows have been sun-baked and beaten, and the cats are giving us a wide berth for fear that they will be next.  During these massive cleaning/inspection sessions, I believe that we found “ground-zero” for both sets of moths.  In the pantry: a bag of masoor daal (red lentils) from a local indian grocery, and in the fiber stack: a large bag of a mostly angora/finewool blend. Large being one full pound. 

One pound. Angora. Finewools.

Kind of makes you go all cold and clammy, doesn’t it? As Julia has noted is their habit, they couldn’t have come in on my embarrassingly large stash of cheapass Peruvian Highland Wool from Elann could they?  No siree, they came straight out of the single most expensive item in my fiber stash.  There may have been some foul language, and there was definitely some tequila.  I have to be honest, that fiber is still in my freezer because I simply can’t make myself throw it away.  I know logically that I should bring it out, let it sit for a week or two, refreeze it for a while to kill any new larvae (thanks again for that tip Julia), and then spin it up.  It should be completely safe by then, but I feel like every time I sit down to spin it I’ll get the creepy-crawly-heebie-jeebies because of the dead moth eggs/larvae/bodies in it.  Also? Even if it gets all cleaned, I’m afraid (and I know this is stupid, I do) that I’ll never trust it not to sprout more mothdemons to take over the stash room, or worse, the closet full of hand knits.   Eventually I will have to ask Rick to throw it away for me because I don’t think there’s enough tequila or chocolate or wine in all the world to make me voluntarily do it myself.  For now it’s resting peacefully in the freezer, blissfully unaware of it’s fate, and I am quietly ignoring it as I go about the rest of the damage control activities.  That is, however, the only fiber I’ve actually “lost” so far, so it’s hard not to feel pretty grateful that we caught things early.  

There’s been lots more stuff going on around here, but this is quite long enough already, so stay tuned for actual knitting content,  quite possibly even tomorrow, including a River-along update.  I'll warn you now, it's not pretty.

Comments

[claudia]

Hands Kellee a Jack Daniels, straight.

Tiptoes quietly away.....

[Rebekah]

Oh how I feel for you, we've been dealing with pantry moths for what seems like years. Good luck!

[Jackie]

Oh Kellee, I had no idea. I'm so sorry. And I will keep your sweater until your house is safe again, just let me know.

[Laurie]

My toes are curling, my face is wincing, my soul is squeezing, and my heart is breaking. Lesson. Fiber gets frozen before adding to stash. I didn't think of that. I learned something from all this, if it makes you feel one whit better.

[Kristen]

I don't think anything I say will help, but know that if I were closer I'd offer to buy you a beer, a drink, a gallon of whatever you choose. I can't imagine being in your situation - and twice? that's just cruel and unusual. I am so sorry.