Frayed Knot

A piece of yarn walks into a bar and orders a beer, but the bartender snarls, "We don't serve your kind here!". The yarn is forced to leave.

While sitting on the curb feeling sorry for himself, the yarn is suddenly hit with a brilliant idea. Working quickly, he ties himself into a knot and unravels his ends. Taking a deep breath, the yarn marches back into the bar and orders a beer.

"Hey!" says the bartender. "Ain't you that piece of yarn I just threw outta here?"

"Nope," replies the yarn, "I'm a frayed knot."

I've heard this one before, but I found this version on the Socknitters Forum. (It was post by someone named "silfert.")

This past week I got a lot of work done on the Epic Adult Surprise Jacket, but I had a problem. The yarn started breaking.




It started with my second ball of Queensland Collection Rustic Wool. I started pulling the ball from the middle. When I started to run out of yarn the ball started falling apart. (See the picture above.) I assumed the first couple of breaks were a fluke, but after the first couple of frays I realized something was wrong. I wondered if the yarn had been in contact with something with something sharp in my yarn bag.




After much spit splicing* I finished off the Rustic Wool and continued with the last little bit of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted leftover from Katie's Le Slouch. This time I started using the yarn from the outside of the ball, and the same thing started happening right away. (You can see some examples above.) The breaks stopped when I got farther into the ball.

Both balls had breaks and frays on the outside part of the ball and not the inside.  And most of the breaks weren't clean breaks. Individual plies had been broken. This leads me to one conclusion...




I HAVE MOTHS!


Here are the facts:

1. Both of these yarns have been in storage since November.

2. They were in plastic tubs, but not in plastic bags within the tubs.

3. They were stored in two different tubs.

4. They're both wool yarns.

5. I've seen silverfish in the unit before.

6. We've been having lots of triple digit days recently, and the unit is not climate controlled.

7. Dad put moth balls all over the unit when we moved my stuff in. This was recommended by the management at the storage unit.

8. Both yarns have been in my stash for at least a couple of years.

I'm seeking input on this issue. We haven't been back to the unit since this discovery. I guess I've been putting it off. I'm also wondering if it could be a different pest, like the silverfish I saw before, or if the yarn is so old that it's disintegrating.

In "The Secret Life of a Knitter", the Yarn Harlot's talks about her battle with moths in her stash. It was an ordeal. She had a complicated system of freezing, thawing, freezing again and inspecting. (I seem to remember a microwave being involved at some point. I could be wrong.)

Like the Yarn Harlot, I have a large amount of yarn. Unlike the Yarn Harlot, I live in a hot and dry climate that rarely has snow (especially in June.) I don't have the option of putting my yarn outside to freeze, as she did. Our freezer is packed, so I can only fit in a skein or two at a time.

I'm planning to start by taking the two tubs that the frayed yarns were stored in out of the storage unit. They will probably get some sort of Yarn Harlot-esque treatment.

Then I'm going to ask Dad to put in more moth balls, even though I hate them. (He puts them outside the tubs, so hopefully they don't stink too much.)

Mom got fresh lavendar for her birthday. I'm considering drying sprigs and putting them in the the tubs themselves.

I know moth balls and lavender won't do much if there's already moths in the yarn. I'm wondering what else I should do. Should take out every tub and "treat" all the yarn? (We're talking about approximately 10 tubs.) And exactly what type of freezing/microwaving type of treatment should I do? Should I bag all the yarns within the tubs?

Can I use your freezer?




Meanwhile, the Epic Adult Surprise Jacket is coming along nicely. I'm at the phases where you only knit the stitches in the middle of the rectangle for a while.




I've done even more since these pictures were taken, including using that Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted with all the breaks.




The problem with the Adult Surprise Jacket is that you can't really put on your work in progress to see how it's going to fit. Mom helped me "try on" the jacket while I was lying on the floor. It was great photo op, of course.

I was trying on the jacket because I'm not sure what my desired length is. I'm supposed to go to the next phase when I'm about one inch from my desired length.

The pattern recommends using the length of your favorite sweater, but I don't have a favorite sweater. I may go by the length of my favorite t-shirt. That's why I haven't worked on it for a few days. I need to decide both the length and what color to use next. I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this:

A guy walks into a dentist’s office and flops right down on the couch.

“Doc”, he says, “Here’s the problem. I think I’m a moth”

“Well”, says the doctor, “That certainly is a problem, but why did you come into a dentist’s office?”

“The light was on.”

-From www.free-funny-jokes.com.



* - I know spit splicing isn't supposed to work with superwash wool yarns like Rustic Wool, but it worked well enough for me.

FO: Longhorn Socks

Success!

If you recall, when we last saw these socks, I had run out of yarn just a few rounds away from finishing the toe of the second sock.

Well, Plan A worked.

I showed up to The Knitting Nest Monday night, and asked Stacy if she had gotten my Ravelry message. I went to put my stuff down, and before I could pull out the socks, she had checked her messages and gotten out a ball of yarn.



I was saved.

I sat down right there and finished knitting the toe. This ball was from another dyelot, however. But at this point, I called it close enough.











I had a debate over how to join the yarn. I tend to do knots, despite the fact that you're not "supposed" to join with knots. I'm always paranoid about it coming undone. However, I didn't want the knot to be in the toe.

Someone suggested Spit Splicing. The only time I had done it before when I was felting, and I wasn't very confident it would hold. Stacy said to rub really hard against my pant leg. I rubbed it until I could feel the heat from the friction.

Although it's superwash wool (and the link I posted said it won't work with superwash) it turned out well. I think I'll spit splice more often. Of, course, I should have cut off the orange end of the yarn and spliced it where it was all white to avoid the barber poll effect. But I called it close enough.

If you look very closely, you can tell that the toe is darker than the rest of the sock, and you can see the spit splice barber pole if you look even closer. But the variations in the hand dyed yarn make it difficult to see unless you look for it.

Finally, here are the vital stats:

These are the Slipped Stitch Rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks. These are knit for a men's US Size 8 1/2 in a gauge of six stitches per inch (if you are not familiar with the book, all the patterns are in a large range of sizes and gauges.) I used US Size 2 bamboo needles and Hill Country Yarns Instant Gratification Sock Yarn in the "Hook 'Em" colorway. One skein is supposed to make an average size pair of socks. These took a little more than one skein.

This is some lucky person's Christmas gift.