One of the moth mysteries has been solved. I moved the coffee table and discovered holes in the wool rug I bought, um, 24 years ago in Pittsburgh. (My housekeeping skills are the worst. Guess I need to move the coffee table when I vacuum, huh.) Anyway, it's a goner. I was trying to figure out how to dispose of an 8x10 rug when a friend suggested cutting it up so I could put it in the trash bin. I wonder how long it would have taken me to think of that. So this afternoon's entertainment will take place on the driveway, starring Rob on her knees with a utility knife.
Here's a picture of the evidence. The rug is actually a gray blue... none of the books I have read on color have talked about digital images on smartphone cameras, of course. Now I want to know why they are so bad with color.
So I began going through the yarn stash and projects, most of them poorly protected. A lot of the yarns that were not zipped away are cottons or blended rayons, fortunately. I tossed a small semi-abandoned wool project that had been munched on, and took a skein of yarn near it, that showed no obvious damage, and submerged it for 24 hours.
This, however, will be a slow process with larger lots of yarn. I also have to figure out how to hang this to dry without leaving it out as a buffet choice for moths. I think what I will do is turn the fan on it -- that will encourage the drying will hopefully keeping it too windy for moths to land. I also put a little bit of a wool wash in it -- I don't usually use it, since it is scented, but we will see if the myths that scent can fool moths into not perceiving wool are true. Maybe the combination will help.
I now have to go through several other works in process, to see if they have been attacked. My small project bags are mostly just small fabric bags. I think I will have to keep those inside larger plastic bags I can seal, at least until I can (I hope) overcome the moth problem. With the rug gone, I think the only source of wool will be my knitting yarns -- oh geez, and my old wintercoats. I had better check on those as well.
Meanwhile, the wiseass moth who displayed itself inside a plastic tote? She's in the freezer.
I am going to take the projects out of that bag today, inspect the projects for damage and, if there is no visible damage, will do the submerge trick again, to kill larvae. I was very careless with these projects, leaving them lying around or in open baskets, and only putting them in the plastic tote recently. I will be especially sorry to lose the alpaca wrap that has been a couple of years in the making, but it would be my fault Meanwhile I will finish the spinning project I have on the wheel, and submerge that -- I don't think I have been careful about the unspun wool, and will have to do my best to kill whatever might have been laid in the roving. The collection of roving waiting to be spun is safely stored in a huge zippered plastic ... box? ... that curtains came in. You know you are a fiber collector when part of the pleasure of buying new linens is getting two items: the sheets or curtains or blanket and the zippered plastic container it came in.