fear of a moth planet and other adventures

Hey, it's some brightly colored yarn...and it's drying in my bathtub. Here's the story: Anna (aka Josh's mother) will be moving out west soon and had some wool to give me. Upon returning home from the 'yarn hand-off' I realized that in addition to partially knitted up and very brightly coloured 'something(s)'(blanket? tunic? sweater? I didn't think to ask.) there was a pair of 10 mm Brittany needles. This excited me greatly because I don't have any Brittany needles and I think they are 'neat'. But I digress... I checked the partially knitted something(s) for evidence of moths and they seemed to be clear started to frog the partially knitted something(s) and I decided that yes, I should take Anna's suggestion and give it a wash prior to using. I decided to frog it at the same time. I wasn't sure exactly what the yarn was but I'm suspecting a blend of wool/alpaca/mohair? 'Molpaca' perhaps?...it's sort of felted, yet at the same time sheds like woah. I will do a burn test at some point, if I can ever find some matches in my apartment squalor. As I frogged the something(s), I noticed that the yarn was distressed at certain points but put that down to age.

The 'frogshing' took me some time and I realized I was going to be late meeting Jacquie for sushi and knitting at the HoS, so I left the sodden yarn mess in my bathtub to deal with later.

The next morning (aka later) I started to detangle the sodden yarn mess and noticed there was more breakage than originally thought. I did some research on the internet and discovered that this could be a sign of moth damage and got 'the fear', so I then spent the rest of the day panicking, making lavender sachets:



and protecting the precious precious yarn stash by separating it, putting it all into paper bags, throwing in the sachets and hermetically sealing the bags (ok, truthfully I just folded over the edges and stapled them shut)



Perhaps this was overkill. The damage to the yarn probably happened pre-knitting (ie: when the yarn was still in balls) and I didn't see any other evidence of the dreaded moth. In any case, much of the yarn was salvagable and my fear and paranoia did force me to organize the ol' stash and decide on some things for next week's Stash 'n' Bash, Plus I have lots of bright coloured yarn to knit into...something... using the supercool Brittany needles. Or perhaps the sadly neglected Knifty Knitter. In any case I can't complain cause hey, it's some free, interesting yarn. Any project suggestions?

speaking of projects



This is my first attempt at a crocheted something. It is the Pda, from the Happy Hooker book. I unravelled most of this 'masterpiece' immediately after taking the photo. one day perhaps it will become a hat. But not today...or tomorrow for that matter.