I’m contemplating getting a deep freeze for my fiber. I know that sounds nutty, but I’m so scared of getting months. Whenever I buy new fiber, I’m always nervous about what could be tagging along. If I had a deep freeze dedicated to fiber, I could cycle everything in for a month at a time to make sure nothing survives, just like I do with rice and chiles. They say a regular household fridge isn’t really cold enough to do the trick, but when I checked our old chest freezer before it crapped out (which is totally my fault, and a long, boring, and embarrassingly stupid story), it went way below zero not ever cranked all the way up. I can’t remember the exact number, but I think 5 or 10 below was plenty for a moth egg death squad.
Hm. Actually, there’s still an old freezer in Eskridge (our extra buildings that are waiting patiently). I think I’ll go plug it in this weekend and see how cold it gets. If it does the trick, maybe the boys who use the gym for basketball will haul it over here for me…
Yay! It’s no energy star, but I could just run it when I’m cycling in new wool.
What do you call the girl version of the loincloth? The one that’s more like a miniskirt toga? I can’t think of anything but loincloth, but it covers far more than one’s loins. Anyway, I’m finishing one up for the cave girl burlesque act.
I met with Amie (Etta Vendetta) yesterday after powwowing with Kelly Sue and Laurenn about the names of each act. We hammered out the titles, and corny set/prop items. And if you’re in or near KC and you’re a magician or ventriloquist who wants to perform for free in between acts, email me! So far, we’ll have some dirty jokes in drag, some bad comedy, and Kelly Sue emceeing. I’m tempted to hula hoop and drink beer as a suitably lame tweenyact, but I’m afraid I’ll get stage fright and drop my hoop. Unthreatened, I can hoop forever. I used to do it to attract people to our garage sales.
Is that thing called a pareo?
I got moths in my jumper draw and they ate my two favourite ones! evil little buggers – only seemed to go for the handknit expensive ones, must be posh moths to only eat cashmere!
I did realise that I had to get rid off them and since my freezer was full of food, I got a bit creative and microwaved everything – I know this probably isn’t helpful with the large loads of fibers you have (I completely understand how had it is to control the urges to buy MORE) but it’s quite good for smaller amounts, jumpers and yarn of unknown origin. Just stuff it in the microwave and zap for a couple of minutes – the fiber is fine and any unwanted guests are fried.
Do you just nuke it dry? I could always take a day and cycle everything through. Wouldn’t work for grease wool, but I don’t get much of that anymore, anyway…. Hm.
I haven’t actually had any damage or evidence. My only real interaction was a terrifying episode last year–and it was fortunately a single worm in a newly-arrived, ziplocked batting sample a wool producer had sent me, and I’d kept it in a cabinet in my office, well away from my fiber stash (e.s.p.?), so it couldn’t have invaded anything else. The only other fiber in the cabinet was some superwash (do moths even eat superwash?), but I immediately moved it next door (one of the perks of living in a couple of school buildings) to isolate it. I haven’t checked, but it overwintered in an unheated, drafty building in a very harsh winter, so anything that made it in would be long dead.
But I am the neurotic type, and I get fiber from a lot of different sources (won’t be buying from the batting guy again!) and I’m sick of getting in a panic every time I see a whisp of down fluff or fiber fuzz float by.
Good call, jodi!
SPEAKING OF FLEECE – one of my patients has a llama and told me if I want, they’ll give me the fleece (or whatever it is that you get off a llama when you strip it for the summer) and quite naturally I said yes as I usually do to free stuff. My question is – how hard is it to spin this stuff? Do you spin all of it or is there some specific stuff you toss out? I can’t look at the “product” too closely now as it’s still attached to the nasty llama who makes chuffing noises everytime I come near – it would dearly love to cover me in llama spit so I keep my distance. Oh, and I have no idea how to spin anything but since it’s free I figured I’d give it the old college try.
Yep – nuke is dry or I suspect it might do somthing funny to the yarn. The only moisture will be any little beastie so they just go pop!
Hmmm… I’m not sure of a name for that. But I’m quite impressed with your hula hoop skills.
BTW, I saw the ReadyMade article, and it was great! Very positive and boy does that knitting getaway thing sound like fun. I’ll have to keep my ears open for the next one. Thanks!
– Leslie