I broke the big toe on my right foot. I broke the hell out of it. The first doc who looked at my xrays said that it's "ugly". So, I'm in a boot for a month while we wait to see if the chunk of bone I broke off reattaches itself or if I get a pin in my toe. Because of this, my wool is still in disarray. I only have 4 days left of winter break, so I think I'm going to fail, once again, at getting my yarn organized prior to going back to school. At least it's not really my fault this time.
Because of my stupid foot, I can't work out like I planned, can't get to the eye doctor (probably not my foot's fault, but I'm sticking with the excuse), and can't get my house under control. I can, however, type, so I finally wrote an article about spinning that I've been trying to put together for several years. It's not much, but it's my small victory.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Freaking moths.
I'm still dealing with the drama of the moths. Out of paranoia, I decided to empty the bedroom completely in order to make sure that every speck of dust was eradicated. First, I packed up all of the yarn and wool. Luckily, I'm not a complete slacker/idiot and I had two 30 gallon bins that were properly stored and therefore not affected. All other yarn in the room was packed into trash bags and put on the back porch until I could deal with it. I think I pulled about 50 lbs of wool out of the room.
At this point, I began freaking out. The best way I knew of to kill moths was to do the freeze, thaw, repeat process, and my freezer is tiny. If I wanted to keep ice and food in my freezer, it would take me months to treat all of this crap. Fortunately, I turned to Ravelry where I was told that you can use dry ice to kill the evil little bugs.
I bought a few more Rubbermaid tubs at Target and dry ice at the grocery store. The article with the information on fumigation suggested that you need 1-1/2 lbs of dry ice to fumigate a 30 gallon bag of wool. I started with 1/2 lb per 18 gallon tub of wool. I wasn't able to find many reports of dry ice use from other knitters, so I was somewhat concerned that the wool might be damaged if it touched the ice. I decided to put yarn that I'm not in love with directly on top of the ice just to be safe.
After a few hours, there didn't seem to be enough in the way of CO2, so I threw another 1/2 lb in each tub. The ice wasn't melting much either. I dragged all of the tubs into the living room so the ice would melt faster and duct tapped around the tubs to seal them better (the lids on these things suck more than I thought).
Then, on Wednesday, Mother Nature gave us a bit of a cold front. The temperature dropped down to 10 below, so I put the tubs back outside just in case. There is no such thing as overkill when it comes to moths.
I've began unpacking the wool this evening. I planned to rewash everything in Kookaburra wool wash, but now I'm starting to rethink that. Washing all of this wool is going to be a massive pain in the ass and it doesn't seem entirely necessary. The wool wasn't harmed by the dry ice at all, so I think I'll be fine if I just start packing everything up into freezer bags.
Unfortunately, I won't know if this method was effective until some time has passed. I'm going to be cautious with how the wool is packed and inspect it pretty regularly to make sure things still look ok. If I'm still moth free in a few months, I guess it worked. I really hope it does because the dry ice seems like the easiest way to deal with this much wool.
I'm still dealing with the drama of the moths. Out of paranoia, I decided to empty the bedroom completely in order to make sure that every speck of dust was eradicated. First, I packed up all of the yarn and wool. Luckily, I'm not a complete slacker/idiot and I had two 30 gallon bins that were properly stored and therefore not affected. All other yarn in the room was packed into trash bags and put on the back porch until I could deal with it. I think I pulled about 50 lbs of wool out of the room.
At this point, I began freaking out. The best way I knew of to kill moths was to do the freeze, thaw, repeat process, and my freezer is tiny. If I wanted to keep ice and food in my freezer, it would take me months to treat all of this crap. Fortunately, I turned to Ravelry where I was told that you can use dry ice to kill the evil little bugs.
I bought a few more Rubbermaid tubs at Target and dry ice at the grocery store. The article with the information on fumigation suggested that you need 1-1/2 lbs of dry ice to fumigate a 30 gallon bag of wool. I started with 1/2 lb per 18 gallon tub of wool. I wasn't able to find many reports of dry ice use from other knitters, so I was somewhat concerned that the wool might be damaged if it touched the ice. I decided to put yarn that I'm not in love with directly on top of the ice just to be safe.
After a few hours, there didn't seem to be enough in the way of CO2, so I threw another 1/2 lb in each tub. The ice wasn't melting much either. I dragged all of the tubs into the living room so the ice would melt faster and duct tapped around the tubs to seal them better (the lids on these things suck more than I thought).
Then, on Wednesday, Mother Nature gave us a bit of a cold front. The temperature dropped down to 10 below, so I put the tubs back outside just in case. There is no such thing as overkill when it comes to moths.
I've began unpacking the wool this evening. I planned to rewash everything in Kookaburra wool wash, but now I'm starting to rethink that. Washing all of this wool is going to be a massive pain in the ass and it doesn't seem entirely necessary. The wool wasn't harmed by the dry ice at all, so I think I'll be fine if I just start packing everything up into freezer bags.
Unfortunately, I won't know if this method was effective until some time has passed. I'm going to be cautious with how the wool is packed and inspect it pretty regularly to make sure things still look ok. If I'm still moth free in a few months, I guess it worked. I really hope it does because the dry ice seems like the easiest way to deal with this much wool.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
There's no motivation like a moth infestation.
I've spent the last few days cleaning out my bedroom. Everything, regardless of whether it is edible by moths, has been removed and will be carefully inspected and cleaned before returning. Well, the furniture actually stayed in the room, but it was moved, dusted, cleaned with the Method lavender stuff, vacuumed behind, mopped under, etc. You get the drift.
Cleaning gives you a lot of time to think, so I offer the followingexcuses perfectly valid reasons why my house is in a constant state of chaos:
1. I live in a friggin' shoe box. I'm serious. It's like 950 sqft without a basement, closets, or any real opportunity to be organized. In my home there are 3 humans, 3 kitties, 2 pug dogs, 2 bedrooms and 3 closets. 'nuff said.
2. I am supremely ADD. I'm sure that there are people with ADD out there who are organized, but I am not one of them. I regularly find things in places that I do not remember putting them such as car keys in the freezer, math books in with the pots and pans, Girl Scout cookies in the garage, etc. I lose things a lot. For example, today I was sweeping something in the hall and used the new dustpan that I bought on Thursday. 10 mins later, it was lost. I have no freaking idea what I did with it.
Because of my ability to rapidly lose things (IN A 950 SQFT HOUSE!!!), I buy replacements. I'm sure that this adds to the level of chaos, although I will never manage to find the other 2 dustpans, 10 tape measurers, 5 or 6 tweezers, countless scissors, etc.
3. I am overly sentimental. I can not possibly part with that fugly snowman because Grams bought it for me.
4. I am eternally optimistic. I will, someday soon, fit into that skirt. It doesn't matter that I have been saying that since before I moved in here or that I am not confident enough to wear something that short even if I could. I will fit into it someday and cannot part with it.
5. I have been, and currently am, flat broke. I am constantly afraid that I will need something and not be able to replace it. This instinct to horde household objects came in quite handy last week when one of my remaining new(ish) dinner plates broke. Thanks to my stockpile of old dishes in the garage, my family was able to have dinner at the same time.
6. My husband. I know that he believes that I am the sole reason that our house is in a constant state of disarray, but he lacks proof. I, on the other hand, have plenty of proof that he is a contributing factor. Observe the following:
I've spent the last few days cleaning out my bedroom. Everything, regardless of whether it is edible by moths, has been removed and will be carefully inspected and cleaned before returning. Well, the furniture actually stayed in the room, but it was moved, dusted, cleaned with the Method lavender stuff, vacuumed behind, mopped under, etc. You get the drift.
Cleaning gives you a lot of time to think, so I offer the following
1. I live in a friggin' shoe box. I'm serious. It's like 950 sqft without a basement, closets, or any real opportunity to be organized. In my home there are 3 humans, 3 kitties, 2 pug dogs, 2 bedrooms and 3 closets. 'nuff said.
2. I am supremely ADD. I'm sure that there are people with ADD out there who are organized, but I am not one of them. I regularly find things in places that I do not remember putting them such as car keys in the freezer, math books in with the pots and pans, Girl Scout cookies in the garage, etc. I lose things a lot. For example, today I was sweeping something in the hall and used the new dustpan that I bought on Thursday. 10 mins later, it was lost. I have no freaking idea what I did with it.
Because of my ability to rapidly lose things (IN A 950 SQFT HOUSE!!!), I buy replacements. I'm sure that this adds to the level of chaos, although I will never manage to find the other 2 dustpans, 10 tape measurers, 5 or 6 tweezers, countless scissors, etc.
3. I am overly sentimental. I can not possibly part with that fugly snowman because Grams bought it for me.
4. I am eternally optimistic. I will, someday soon, fit into that skirt. It doesn't matter that I have been saying that since before I moved in here or that I am not confident enough to wear something that short even if I could. I will fit into it someday and cannot part with it.
5. I have been, and currently am, flat broke. I am constantly afraid that I will need something and not be able to replace it. This instinct to horde household objects came in quite handy last week when one of my remaining new(ish) dinner plates broke. Thanks to my stockpile of old dishes in the garage, my family was able to have dinner at the same time.
6. My husband. I know that he believes that I am the sole reason that our house is in a constant state of disarray, but he lacks proof. I, on the other hand, have plenty of proof that he is a contributing factor. Observe the following:
- In his dresser drawer I found gate schedules and bag tags from an airline he hasn't worked for in the last 3 years.
- There are currently seven glass coke bottles on top of the filing cabinet because he thinks they are cute.
- He has stacks of notes from D&D games that he was playing when the 2nd edition rules were new.
- He doesn't screw the lids onto bottles. He just sets them on top and puts them in the fridge or cabinets.
- I found several pair of pants that he has purchased and forgotten (that fit). They all still have the tags.
- He won't let me toss his Christian Death t-shirt even though it's more holes than shirt.
- He has stacks of disks for computer games that are so old they can't run in Vista and won't run in Wine.
- He bought a new Yule tree this year because he couldn't find, or forgot that we still have, the old one (it's in the shed)
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