That Four Letter Word

I found 5 of these things in my home recently. There were only 2 steps away from my yarn storage room. Never paid them much attention previously but somehow when I saw them crawling slowly towards my yarn room, all the little hairs on my neck went on alert. A frantic google search confirmed my fears. M-O-T-H.

The household casebearer, Phereoeca uterella, is a moth in the Tineidae family of Lepidoptera. Many species in this family are casebearers and a few are indoor pests of hairfibers, woolens, silks, felt and similar materials. Most people know this species by the name "plaster bagworm."

The larval case is a slender flat fusiform or spindle-shape case which resembles a cantaloupe or pumpkin seed. It can be found under spiderwebs, in bathrooms, bedrooms and garages. Cases can be found on wool rugs and wool carpets, hanging on curtains, or underneath under buildings, hanging from subflooring, joists, sills and foundations; on the exterior of buildings in shaded places, under farm sheds, under lawn furniture, on stored farm machinery and on tree trunks.

Regular cleaning practices, increased use of air conditioning in houses, and reduced number of woolen goods, along with pesticide application in cracks and crevices for household pest control, have decreased the incidence of the household casebearer. Manual picking or vacuuming of cases and spider web removal should be enough to keep this species under control.

And then I read this line and nearly fainted :

"....when woolen threads and woolen cloth were offered to the larvae “they ate eagerly”. "

I spent the next few days crawling on my hands and knees, and peering underneath sinks, scrutinising door frames, and combing all corners and cracks of doors, in an effort to find more of them. I did find more, and I also found 2 x dead mama moths, and lots of little old spider webs behind chests of drawers, behind the fridge etc.

Lest you think we're a dirty family who don't clean their house, we do have cleaners over every week, and they vacuum and wipe and mop. It baffles me as to where all these things come from, and how I'm supposed to regularly move the fridge & heavy furniture to vacuum away those old spider webs which the moth cases feed on!

At any rate, I ziplocked up all my yarn - praying that there were no eggs in the existing yarn stash... and put cedar blocks in my yarn storage cupboards. I did try to shake the yarn to see if I could identify any 'eggs' or moth-like tendencies, but not knowing what exactly to look out for, I hoped for the best.

This is my yarn storage area now... the stash still looks kinda naked and vulnerable, even clothed in their protective ziploc bags. Maybe I should revert to plastic bins - what do you think?

Cables & Lace Update

I've been good and knitting away on the Cables & Lace Kimono Cardy.. it's a really fun knit and now that I've done something like this I don't think I can ever do a stockinette-only sweater/cardigan.

It was kinda scrunched up and tight-looking at first, but after a light steam blocking, the lace opened up and the yarn kinda 'relaxed' - this is pretty typical of Sublime yarn, I think, maybe because of the silk content?

Here is where I am as of today, I have to finish off the belt/tie (which is like 200+ rows of 7 stitches!), and then pick up and do the ribbing around the neck area. Glad that this should be done before baby is due!

Bye Bye Tuscany

I've decided to frog the Tuscany Shawl (pattern from 'No Sheep for You'). Although the yarn is really seductive (Handmaiden Seasilk!), its striping effect and dark color really seems to overshadow the delicate lace pattern of the shawl. Anyways, I think a shawl named 'Tuscany' should be a joyous burst of color - so maybe I will use the red Malabrigo lace yarn instead. Last pic of the unfortunate shawl - bye, bye...

To make up for my disappointment (and also as a break from the tedious chart reading of the Cables & Lace Cardy), I cast on for this Entrelac Scarf. The pattern is free from Freckles & Purls, and I had the yarn ready bought for this - Paton's Soy Wool Stripes in 'Natural Earth' colorway. I had wanted to learn Entrelac for a long time now, but if A hadn't shown me hers, I don't think I would have the courage to start. Once I cast-on though, I was addicted and spent the whole of last night going 'just 1 more square'. See what you done, A?

I chose the yarn specially with a friend in mind, she's a real browns/naturals kinda gal and I thought this colorway is just so 'her'. But as I knit, I see more indigos / purples popping up in the yarn.. what's up with that? Argh.

Caitlin's Summer Hat

I decided to rip out the first bobble hat and re-do it from scratch using the 2nd ball of yarn - thankfully there was just enough to finish it off. And since precious little heads need protection from our very hot tropical sun, I modified it into a summer hat with a little brim.

Today I gave it to the (less than) 1 month old recipient, and to my amazement.. it FIT! Errr, I mean to say, (cough, cough).... based on my thorough research on baby head sizes and careful accurate measuring, of course it fit, (cough, cough), I didn't mean to imply that I simply winged it and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.... not that at all....

So to celebrate a successful little project, I'm officially naming this Caitlin's Summer Hat, and sharing the pattern here. Word of warning though, I fudge (A LOT) when crocheting, and if the maths doesn't always work out, please be patient and throw in / take out a few stitches to suit your fancy. Or you can always email me :)

Caitlin's Summer Hat (Free Crochet Pattern by Iro Iro Knits)

Yarn : Sport / Light DK weight cotton (less than 1 ball of yarn)
Hook : Clover Size 6/0 (4mm)
Gauge : 22 sc to 4 inches

Measurements for 0-3 month old baby
Circumference @ crown = 14in
Diameter @ crown = 4.5in
Depth from top of crown to brim = 5in

Stitch description : “Bobble St” – 5 hdc in the same st, pull loop of last hdc through top of first hdc

CROWN
R1 : Starting with an adjustable crochet ring, ch1, 6 sc in ring. Pull ring to close. Join. = 6sc
R2 : ch1, 2 sc in each st, join = 12 sc
R3 : ch1, (sc in next 1 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep* until end of round, join = 18 sc
R4 : ch1, (sc in next 2 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep* until end of round, join = 24 sc
R5 : ch1, (sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 30 sc
R6 : ch1, (sc in next 4 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 36 sc
R7 : ch1, (sc in next 5 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 42 sc
R8 : ch1, (sc in next 6 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 48 sc
R9 : ch1, (sc in next 7 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 54 sc
R10: ch1, (sc in next 8 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 60 sc
R11: ch1, (sc in next 9 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 66 sc (diameter at crown should be around 4.5in)
(For a bigger crown size, continue increasing each row as above until desired circumference.)

SIDES
R12 – R18 : ch1, sc in each st across, join = 66 sc (for a deeper hat, increase the number of rows here accordingly)
R19 : ch2, hdc in next 4 st, bobble st, (hdc in next 5 st, bobble st)*, rep * until end of round, join.
R20 : ch2, hdc in each st across, join.
R21 : ch2, hdc in next st, bobble st, (hdc in next 5 st, bobble st)*, rep until 3 st left, hdc in remaining 3 st, join.
R22 : ch2, hdc in each st across, join
R23 : ch2, hdc in next 4 st, bobble st, (hdc in next 5 st, bobble st)*, rep * until end of round, join.

BRIM
R24 : ch1, (sc in next st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round,
R25 : ch1, (sc in next st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join
(above 2 rows create a slight ruffle at brim)
R26 : ch1, sc in each st across until end of round, join.

Pull loop through and cut. Weave in ends.

Cables & Lace Kimono Cardigan

There's no other way to say it - I'm a masochist.

My little one is due in about 5 weeks, and when that happens, I don't know if I will even have time to breathe, let alone knit. So the most practical thing to do (knitting-wise that is), would be to knit baby items, or small quick projects like hats, scarves, dishcloths.. you get the idea.

Instead, I cast on for this.

It's my biggest and most ambitious project to date - I've only ever done 1 cable project, and about 3 lace projects in my entire knitting life. Not to mention that this pattern is 10 pages (!) long, is for the 'Intermediate' knitter (I consider myself newbie-ish with a phobia for anything tough) and requires more than 1000m of yarn. All I know is, I saw the pattern, I have the yarn for it, and I cast-on. And after the first 10 rows (at which point the pattern says 'following pattern as established above), I spent another 2 hours trying to figure out which charts to follow and when.

Thankfully, the knitting itself is not tough, it was the actual interpretation of the pattern that got me freaked. So I went to the stationary shop and bought post-it flags and pasted them all over my pattern, and would painstakingly move the flags down each row whenever I worked it. If the flags should drop or anyone should move them by mistake, I will kill them.

In other less stressful knitting news, I found stray balls of yarn in my stash.. they were about 10 years old. Took 2 hours to crochet this little summer hat in a nubbly cotton yarn. It finished up so quickly and turned out so cute that I wanted to go out and buy more of that yarn (go figure).

Feeling high from my superfast hat, I started another bobble hat of my own design. As I was crocheting the third row of bobbles, I noticed that it was an entirely different shade of green from the top of the hat. Knitting 101 - pls make sure that dyelots are the same? Yeah - try telling that to stray little balls of yarn whose labels have disintegrated.

So the bobble hat sits unfinished as I try to convince myself that the yellow-ish tinge in the third row of the bobbles is actually a "design element".

How difficult is it to knit a scarf - conclusion

OK, we've decided to go with Option 2 - very smooshy, very fast, very red. I had my doubts when I first started, but as I knit along, I began to fall in love with the different tones of red.

As a side note, we may also exercise Option 1 .... we shall see.....

How difficult is it to knit a scarf?

Mission : Knit a masculine scarf in a rich color by mid-Jan for DH, yarn must be comfortable and luxurious (and preferably has some color variegation or interesting stitch pattern so that I don't get bored).

Sounds easy, you say?

Option 1 : Buy a luxury yarn like cashmere, or qiviut, or (as suggested by some evil knitting buddies...) Buffalo Yarn (yum!) *image from buffalogold weblink*

Pros : It's unique, it's uber soft, it's warm without being chunky, it's certainly luxurious.. and definitely very manly (how can anything called 'buffalo gold' not be manly?)

Cons : What cons? It's Buffalo Yarn! Aside from the small problem of it costing USD70 a skein, of course. Oh, and I probably won't get the yarn ordered and shipped in time. Hmm.

So as I float down from la-la land... I begin to consider other more practical options.

Option 2 : 3 strands of yarn held together for a chunky modern scarf, in a simple 2x2 rib stitch. 1 strand of fingering weight Merino wool in a deep blue-red, 1 strand of Rowan Wool Cotton in a warmer tomato red, and 1 strand of some kidsilk mohair in a brown-red.

Pros : Yarns are from my Japan stash (yes, I have lots of red colored yarn in my stash). Although using up my precious Japan stash takes a lot of courage, I console myself that I can buy more yarn to replenish the stock. More pros : it's a fast knit, the rib pattern is masculine and simple enough, and the subtle color toning of the various shades of red definitely makes a statement without being too fussy.

Cons : Wonder if the chunky homespun look is too funky for DH?

Option 3 : A more traditional looking scarf, in leftover Rowan Cashsoft Aran in a dark slate gray, using a double moss stitch pattern for some texture.

Pros : Certainly classic enough. Understated elegance in a very comfortable yarn.

Cons : Don't know if I have enough of this yarn left... only 2.5 balls... thats like 220+ yds or so. Plus this will definitely take longer.

I tried various other combinations but the results of those are simply too ugly to be shown and are a testament to my lack of colour sense.

At this point, I remind myself that I'm overthinking this scarf and should probably just go have a cuppa tea and a soak in the tub.