infestation!

the following is a cautionary tale as to why UFOs should be completed ASAP.

the boy asked me if i would knit him something.  i asked him what he wanted and he said he wanted mittens.

"what color?"
"green."
"okay.  anything else?"
"blue.  and black.  and a little bit of white."
"okay, you want striped mittens.  should be easy."

famous last words.

i went downstairs and dug out yarn for the mittens.  i couldn't find the green i had in mind, then remembered that i was going to use it for a hat i was going to make the boy but never finished.  i found the kit in my work basket and found not only the green yarn but a big skein of black and some pumpkin acrylic (yes, acrylic).



i opened the bag to pull out the yarn and found that i had started a hat but only had a couple rows of ribbing.  i pulled out the skein of black.  then i saw...



see those little brown shells?  those are larvae shells.  evidence that i had moths, and they were in the yarn.

dammit!  i remembered the moths i'd seen fluttering around during the summer, usually in the corner where i and my basket sit.  i blamed the spacing around the AC for letting the critters in, but who knows how they discovered my basket.

i'm no gil grissom, but i can't figure out how the stupid things got into the bag.  it's a zippered bag that pillow cases came in, and as far as i can tell, i couldn't find any holes in it.

now, it's possible the baddies hitched a ride in the yarn at some point.  the black and the green (both patons, i think)  i'd had for quite some time.  the pumpkin yarn i'd gotten last year at michaels, when i was looking for a soft yarn for the boy's pumpkin hat.  i hope those cussin' bugs got gut aches from eating the pumpkin yarn - it was shitty red heart.

now i have to frog the hat (easy) and rewind the yarn to check for webs and holes.  otherwise i'll be schlepping to michaels on saturday for more black and green patons yarn.

then i got a chill down my spine.  that kit was in the bottom of my basket, and the basket held more UFOs.  i'm really hoping that these gems didn't get infested either:



that's the belinda shawl.  all that mohair, a buggie would have a field day in there!




that's my swirl shawl.  all that jojoland melody superwash - a feast for cruel critters!




bugs will get belly ache eating blu.  that's rowan denim in that bag.




dad's scarf and zzzzooo.  the sock should be okay since i recently wound that skein.  dunno about the scarf - it hung out unprotected for much of the summer.

yeah, lesson learned.  i need to finish up some UFOs before starting a new project!