Knitter Nightmares

I have fallen a bit in love with simple lace patterns. (I blame this on Shannon and her lace cowl. I have knit one of my own but that is a story for another day) After I was done with the cowl I thought I would do an easy lace sock pattern. I pulled one out of my Socks that Rock collection. In the sock kit the pattern was paired with a very pretty pastel yarn that came with two patterns to pick from. I am saving the pastel for the second pattern, I think this pattern is called "sweet tarts" but I may have that wrong.

I chose some older STR yarn to use, it is a lightweight that I got in one of the kits the first year Mom and I subscribed the the STR. I did not love the pattern that the yarn was paired with those many years ago (3 I think) so this yarn has been sitting (wound up and ready to go by the way) for quite sometime.



The first sock has moved along quite quickly, but I have been having some trouble with the yarn. I did not get to far into knitting the sock when I came across a spot where the yarn was weak and a little frayed. I frowned at it, cut out the small bad spot, knotted the yarn and kept on knitting. I little further into the sock and I came across another spot, I treated it the same as I did the first.

I remembered that the first year Blue Moon did the sock club they changed yarn suppliers part way through the year. I thought about that and figured they must not have been happy with the yarn they were getting. I mean two week spot in one hank was a bit unusual. I kept knitting.

A little while later I am knitting along and a yarn end slips through the hand I keep the tension with. Okay now I am really unhappy with the yarn. I have a close look at the yarn ends, they are clean break, like someone cut the yarn, no frayed ends, no weak spot, just broken yarn. I tie another knot and keep on going.



The fact that I did not clue in at this point kind of baffles me. In retrospect I wonder if I am an idiot or just to optimistic to think this could be anything other than poor manufacturing. I knit on. I knit for quite sometime with no more incidents. I figure it must just be fluke and worry about it no more.

Until another yarn end slipped through my fingers. Then I complained to Paul about the yarn quality and picked the ball up off the floor for a closer look. Do you see what I saw? First look in the picture above. If you can't spot it there don't feel to bad, I had to get out the macro lens for the photo below.



Something ate my yarn.

I really not sure how to proceed. Is this an epidemic? I my entire yarn stash riddled with yarn eating vermin? When I showed the hole to Paul he had the nerve to say, "I bet something crawled in there and laid eggs." I can't even go there.

I decided I am going to knit my way to the answer. I am going to finish the socks, knotting yarn when I need to and see what is in the middle of the ball. I will keep you posted.

On another note PJ wrote this note and posted it on her door yesterday when she got home from school. I was at work but Paul told me about it. I guess when he and Quentin read the note they both went in and helped PJ.

She was in a great mood by the time I got home from work and showed me the note with a big smile on her face. I love the phonetic spelling of 'only', which of course is the word "olee" in PJ'S note. I have to respect anyone that can express themselves as well as PJ did yesterday. She managed to turn her "Bad Bad Day" into a good one and the whole family shared a laugh about it.