Tuesday, March 03, 2009

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.

5 comments:

dwgnldy said...

PJ's note is hilarious. I know what she's talking about. My day isn't quite what I had hoped for when I got up this morning.

I'm sure whatever got into your yarn is absolutely adorable. Nothing creepy or icky. Think kitty cat that caught it's nail on the yarn and pulled it.

How's that for pulling something out of my hat?

Maybe you should be putting the knots on the outside and saying they're part of the pattern. LOL!

The sock is turning out very nice. Ignore everything else. This will be your pair definitely made with love.

Wudas said...

Good for PJ. I hope it hold all the way through menopause.

Put the rest of your yarn in the freezer ASAP. That will kill any bugs or eggs in your stash. I occasionally get moth larva from the bird seed in the cages. The good part is that they don't eat wool. Now I put the seed in the freezer for a day or two before I feed it to the parrots.

angie, party of one said...

Okay, the creature in the yarn creeps me out.
PJ's note is fantastic, one to save for sure!

Anonymous said...

I just love that kids know what we forget. That it is OK to ask for hugs when one has had a bad day....here's to PJ for reminding us that it is good to ask for help not onlee when we feel bad but all the time. Thanks for sharing. Sandi

Shannon said...

I love Paige's note, it's awesome! By the way, awesome is one of Taylor's favorite words right now.

I'm with Mom, put your yarn in the freezer. I've been lucky and haven't had any problems with anything eating my yarn. But we do have the bird seed problem. I think I'm going to put the bird seed in the freezer.