As the lovely regular readers of this blog might be able to tell you, I've been dealing with a slight moth problem for the last month. Which, to clarify, is that I found moths in some of my unprocessed alpaca fiber (which I had to throw away sadly) and then proceeded to painstakingly go through every item I own, piece by piece, to clean everything as thoroughly as possible. Despite only losing 3 bags of fiber, and having the great fortune of moths not seeming to have touched anything else of my stash, I knew I had to clean everything if for no other reason than for peace of mind.

And now, after this very long month of nonstop cleaning and processing, all of my stuff is clean and moth-free (knock on cedar).

My advice after all of this agonizing and time spent?

Vacuum bags are your friend- use them. Winter clothes should be sealed away during summer months, yarn and fabric that's not being used any time soon should be sealed or put in air-tight totes, and generally anything fibrous that isn't being used should be stored securely.
Check the fiber you get THOROUGHLY. This only happened because I made the mistake of thinking those evil little moth husks were plant fiber. If you're into fiber, fabric, or having happy clothes- get familiar with what the stages of moths look like. It can save you a lot of trouble and only takes a relatively small amount of time (which compared to cleaning time to do damage control, is nothing).
If you do have the misfortune of getting moths, or dear powers that be forbid you are currently dealing with moths, clean everything. It's awful, and it takes way longer than you think it should. You're going to spend whole days sitting on a floor working through things and wondering if it's all worth it and it is. It's worth it for this very moment of knowing you're safe. It sounds dramatic, but I will fully admit that having this comfort of knowing that I don't have to carefully watch everything for months is massive. It's worth it, even if it feels like a bit of an endless battle.

I also can't emphasize enough how fabulous it is to have everything organized and put in a proper place that's clear and easy to navigate.

The morale boost I got from having everything so lovely made the month of work wholly worth it alone.

Today, after months of feeling uninspired and, to be totally frank, horribly beat down by everything, I felt truly and sincerely happy. I have been struggling to feel anywhere near the amount of passion and excitement for exploring and creating, having only gotten a weekend long taste at Knot Another Fiber, and I finally felt like myself again in this room. With all of the neat potential projects, tidy books, and decorations around me I felt motivated to actually come up with new ideas, design quilts, sew, and knit as much as possible. I hadn't realized it, but having space for my passions, having space for me, gave me a whole new push to be happy.

This post is also to announce that now that my house is in order I can AT LONG LAST return to my dyeing ventures and further build up my stock to start selling my own hand-dyed yarns. Thank you for joining me in all of my high highs and even my low lows. You are wonderful, and you give me a reason to pick up the knitting needles.

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.

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