I was hoping this week's post would be about the progress I've made on my Mystery Knitalong, and sadly there are more pressing things to talk about for this crafty blog.

Moths.

Yes I know the picture is of birds on an electric wire, but I wasn't really taking pictures of the moths so much as trying to destroy them and everything they produced.  

This all started as I was unpacking bags from the move I just made to a new apartment.  I noticed a clothes moth in one of my duffel bags that had some free-floating yarn in it and my heart sank.  For those of you who have had the lovely experience to not know why this is doom- I'll explain.  Clothes moths eat just what you would imagine- clothes, particularly natural fibers.  As a crafter who doesn't work with acrylic, this means everything I own is in danger.  

I started hunting to see if it was a one off that I was lucky enough to strike brute force on and eliminate, or if there were more lurking in the shadows.  As you can tell from this being a blog post, there were more.  

Of course they spawned from one of the unwashed bags of alpaca I have.  As I pulled away container after container of open and free floating fibers, I found a nest of these gruesome little monsters making a meal of my lovely alpaca.  

I quarantined that bag outside immediately and started to clean.  I looked up advice and found this magnificent person who shared her experience with such a catastrophe.  She will tell you the details better, but here's what I'm doing to protect my beloveds.

First- I'm washing EVERYTHING.

I have yet to find anything that damaged (besides that one bag of alpaca).  It appears that having moved the bag they were in riled them up enough to get them to seek out more meals, but I have caught it delightfully early.  That being said, nothing is going uncleaned.  

Just because I have no evidence on just about everything I come across, I'm still aware that bug eggs are small and I will loathe myself if I brush this off and not do the thorough job that this sort of event calls for.  I had seen the little husks of those moths in that fiber before and had thought it was plant matter because I didn't examine it closely enough.  I need to be as detailed in this moth hunt as I can so that this NEVER happens again.  

I'm being so meticulous that I'm even undoing every ball of yarn to wrap it in a skein so I can be sure to get them as clean as possible.

I'm vacuuming everything millimeter of that floor repeatedly, washing every sliver of fabric and tendril of yarn, wiping down every surface with either scalding hot detergent water or hydrogen peroxide, and finally when everything is cleaned, I'm putting the crafty supplies away in plastic storage bins that have tight seals and abundant contributions of moth deterring cedar balls and herb satchels.    I got lucky in that my more recent hand dyes, other loose fiber, and some other select yarns were already sealed in plastic bags before all of this and therefore are safe.  I still have a lot of yarn to wash and hang to dry though.

What have I gained from this experience:

• The biggest lesson was from the Red Handed Scissor Article- this fiber should be properly stored like this anyway.  I'm not using all of that yarn at once, nor do I need that fabric to all be exposed all the time.  99% of this work could have been easily avoided if I just stored my materials properly in the first place.
• ALWAYS CHECK THE FIBER UP FOR PURCHASE- I'm guessing most of the moths were dead when I got this fiber which is why I didn't notice the evil that lurked within, but this also could have been avoided if I had checked the fiber a little more thoroughly instead of getting starry eyed over a $5 garbage bag of alpaca.  Which leads me to my next takeaway-
• No more dirty fiber (for the time being)- I realized in this experience that I don't often take the time to sort through the dirty fiber I've bought.  Some of that fiber I've had for over a year and have done nothing with.  At this point in my life I don't think I gain enough joy out of the sorting process to make it worth the agonizing amount of time it takes to process every lock and strand.  So I'm creating the rule that until that genuinely sounds enjoyable, and the bags that don't have moth disgustitude in them are cleaned, I'm not allowed to buy fiber that's dirty.  I need to value my time more.
• Silver lining- I'm so excited to have my materials so well organized.  Yes, if I like organization so much I should just do it- but I'm so good at getting distracted that it simply happens only on every other blue moon.  This has been a tough but excellent motivator to be the level of organized that I've always wanted to be.  
• Everything is going to be SO CLEAN! - Is going through every skein of yarn to wind it on my niddy noddy tedious? Absolutely.  Am I tired of doing load of laundry after load laundry?  Totally.  BUT! I now have the peace of mind of knowing that EVERYTHING is clean.  That's really satisfying to me.  I can now be certain that my yarn is totally clean, as is everything else in my craft room.  How can I not be thrilled to know that every single thing I'm working with is fabulously clean?  
• Moths hate things that smell amazing- In looking at how to further prevent this (because I'm fantastically paranoid now) I discovered that moths avoid scents such as cedar, lavender, mint, rosemary, eucalyptus, cloves, and thyme.  I don't even have to spray my lovely crafty things with toxic chemicals because moths hate everything that I love.  Now all of my stuff smells like a tea shop in a log cabin, which is what I want my whole life to smell like anyway!
• This is probably the most important one for me, this gave me a chance to take a better look at my existing stash.  There are so many skeins of yarn that I have bought with all the love and excitement in the world, and then have neglected to do anything with to the point of forgetting they even exist.  There have been skeins I've come across that I didn't like in ball form, and when I wound them back into a skein I realized why I fell in love with them in the first place.  It also made me realize that I need to do a good bit of catching up.  I'm all for stash love, but I have so many things tucked away that I'm becoming negligent in turning them into what I wanted.  

I'll return next weekend with an update on the Lunar Phase Mystery Knitalong, but I thought this would be an important post for any of you that have dealt with moths or have that particular horror in the future (even though I really hope you don't).

Stay sweet, stay organized, and stay tuned.

When I first started knitting, I took countless needles from my admirably patient mother.  However, there came a point when she needed her needles back, but I wanted to hoard the whole heap of them like they were treasure and I was a dragon.

As a compromise my mother let me spend $40 or so on Ebay to get some needles of my own.  I used the money to buy two big lots of needles from people that either had a relative pass away and no one in their family knit or they had just stopped needing those particular sets.  Thrilled with my massive heaps of needles, I only stole needles from my mother now and then.

Years later when I went to visit my folks and pick up my spinning wheel I decided to grab that large collection of needles along with everything else.  

The only problem was that I never got a needle holder.  As a kid I didn't give much thought to being organised, it was never particularly important to me despite the lamenting of my dear mother.  However, now that I cook and clean for myself, being organised has become far more important to me.

So as I've chipped away at organising everything in my collection the last handful of months, I noticed the big one that I was avoiding; My collection of needles -- my precious dragon-trove.

I took out some fun fabric that I wanted to be able to showcase in a project and set to work creating the ideal needle holder for myself.

I made it laughably long, and plenty tall.  My objective was to be able to happily and comfortably fit all of my beloved single point needles in one holder (don't worry- the double point and circular needle cases will be crafted and written about soon!).

For the bottom pocket and the middle strap I cut pieces to the length of the needle holder and the width of whatever I decided (this time it was so that the pocket would be about 4-5" folded in half and the strap would be about 2" when in half).  Then I just sewed along the length to create a tube so I wouldn't have to worry about any fraying edges, and to give the holder a little bit of extra stability and strength.

The main piece to the holder (the back if you will) I made by layering the fox fabric to face out, a layer of batting to give it durability, and then placed the dark purple fabric that would face in.  I then bound it by doing traditional quilting binding all around the edge then quilted all of the pieces together by making the lines where the needles would be separated. 

As you can see I started with the lines being closer together (2" per slot) and moved onto having bigger slots for the larger needles (3").

When it was all put together, I was delighted to find that I had done the job right, and all of the needles could fit with ease (while still leaving some room for more just in case!).

Part of reason I decided on the the width I did was to ensure that the top could be folded over as I've always liked that in other needle holders that I've seen. Also because I cringe at the very notion that I would be carrying around my needles and due to distraction or accident it would somehow go upside-down and all of my needles would go flying out.

I know you're not supposed to cry over spilled milk, but needles are definitely worth a tear or two.

The last touch was to create a tie that would be able to wrap around a couple of times, and make a nice bow.  Needleless to say, it turned out splendidly.  

Finally.  A place for everything, and everything in its place.

I liked this project because I feel like it's a nice reminder that sometimes when we see expensive needle holders online and hear our wallets give an audible sob (or maybe our hearts) that there is reason to the price of such things, but also that we are crafty people.  We can make things and create, and learn as a community how to empower ourselves to make the thing that's perfect for ourselves.  It may take time, and it may take practice, and to be totally frank I'd be surprised if it didn't, but it's nice to know that the world of crafting is at our fingertips.  We just have to pick up a tool.

Thank you for reading.

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.