Ok – New Year’s Resolutions. I always make them. Some I keep, some I don’t, but the eternal optimist in me compels me to at least try. I’m sure you don’t want to hear the usual “eat better” “exercise more” that we all make, so I’ll stick to the knitting ones. The first is to get my projects more organized. Despite the fact that I have a “studio” (formerly known as “sewing room”), I tend to have things strewn all over the place. This year I will try to catalog my books and my projects a little better so I can acutally find them – and not buy the same pattern twice because I already have it but can’t find it. You guys don’t do that, do you? The second is to finish by New Year’s Eve any projects that I have already started. That doesn’t rule out staring anything new, you understand, just finishing what is on the needles now.
To that end, I brought out some unfinished projects to peruse and make plans. Imagine my horror to find this:
M**TH HOLES!!! IN INGEBORG!!! I am heartbroken. I had this sitting in a basket in my sewing room. I have never seen a moth or larvae, but there is the evidence nevertheless. To make matters worse, it was sitting right on top of Kongsberg. However, after close inspection, I can find no holes in Kongsberg. I immediately took Ingeborg and threw it and all of the yarn in the freezer while I made a plan of attack. After searching around on the internet, I did what Stephanie did. I threw it in the microwave. Hopefully any critters have been fried. I’m not usually this ruthless with insects, but we’re talking mega knitting time and a substantial yarn investment here. I am not the Albert Schweitzer of knitters! Now I’m not sure what to do. I’m nervous about just frogging down to the holes and starting over because I fear all of the yarn may be compromised. This one will have to simmer for a while. Any suggestions?
I will, however, share with you another Dale with the body finished. I do have this tendency to start Dales and then bog down on the sleeves, don’t I?
I wasn’t going to post a picture because this is a surprise for Izzy. But then I realized that even though her parents read my blog, she doesn’t. Shhhh guys – don’t tell her! I started on the tiny little sleeves this morning and I have to thank Chery for her suggestion about using two circs for the sleeves. I have resisted two circs for socks because I am terribly attached to my double points, but this suggestion has saved my bacon (and my sanity). Thanks Chery!
And to reward myself for starting to get better (any excuse!), I took a trip off island to my LYS and bought this:
Lorna’s Laces sock yarn. I have heard such wonderful things about this yarn and decided I needed a treat. But I am going to try and be good and wait until our trip to Orlando in March and make this my plane knitting. Maybe.
missouristar 
Oh, I am so sorry about the holes! What a gorgeous sweater! Izzy’s is adorable, too, I love the colors! Good luck with the extermination!
You are quite welcome. I love 2circs, makes for easier knitting. Beautiful little sweater, too.
Is there any possibility the holes could be from a certain pup and not moths? Yikes, either way it’s a horrible discovery! See? It pays to FINISH stuff 🙂
Oh no, the dreaded “M” word. I gasped out lound when I read your post.
That sweater for Izzy is beatiful along with the pup. I could never let Ms. Grace near my knitting, she is so doggy smelling due to chronically wet hair these days,
Li
Oh, goodness, what a beautiful sweater and how awful to find holes in it. What I would probably try, not wanting to rip out such beautiful work, is to see if it’s possible to duplicate stitch over the holes, sort of like darning a sock. Just google “darning a sock” and the first link has good pictures and instructions on how to do it. I think it’s worth a try; then if it doesn’t look right, you might have to rip.
I think bourbon might be necessary if I found that in my knitting basket. I have no suggestions for the holes, though duplicate stitch sounds easier than ripping. Could you just drop down those columns of stitches and reknit with undamaged yarn? (“Just”, she says.)