Needlework Monday: I Ate The Craft Frog

No, that doesn't mean I had to frog a project again. "Eat that frog" is an expression from a book about goal achieving that recommends you do the unpleasant thing you are putting off first, to get it out of the way, then you will feel better because it's done and not hanging over your head anymore. This week, I did that!

Well okay, I certainly didn't do it "first," but I tackled a project I have put off for literally years.

You see, cloth moths are rampant where I live. I've thrown out a lot of stuff (including a big basket full of expensive wool yarn, sob) that got ruined by them. At one point, I was waging a war against them, because they were laying eggs in the carpet of my apartment and vacuuming was not sufficient to get rid of them!! If I owned the place, I would have thrown out the carpet. I did throw out a cat tree, where they also laid eggs (it was part carpet, and part that fluffy sheep skin type cover. I don't even know if the fluff was real wool, but the moths certainly liked it). Anyway, now they're not so bad (I literally coated my carpet in diatomaceous earth. It was the messiest thing ever, and I killed a vacuum filter after sucking up only half a room of it). I actually haven't seen one in a month or two (knock on wood). But, this brings us to The Blanket.

The Blanket is a project I started as a teenager. I would knit a few rows, not touch it for months, knit a few rows, not touch it for months. One of those things that became my in-between-projects-project. If I had finished some project and not started a new one, I'd work on The Blanket. It's double stranded worsted weight on size seven needles; nice and thick and heavy! I broke three sets of circular needles working on it, from the weight of it pulling on the cable. Each row takes 45 minutes.

It got cloth mothed. Not chewed holes, they laid eggs and cocoons in it. It's acrylic yarn, but apparently they didn't care. I wasn't going to throw it away! I had put so many hours into it! I had been working on it since I was a kid!

But I am so grossed out by bugs, I didn't know what to do. I couldn't wash it while it was still on needles. I needed to finish the row it was midway through and cast off, but that meant touching the buggy thing. So it sat, all covered in cloth moth cocoons, in a basket, and I felt guilty about it.

Finally this week, I told my gross out reflex to fuck off, and after picking off as many cocoons as I could with paper towel, I sat there with the buggy blanket on my lap for two hours, finishing a row and then casting off. Then I washed it twice in the washing machine, the second time with lavender essential oil in Epsom salts in the fabric softener dispenser to ward off any future moths with any ideas (moths don't like eucalyptus, cedar, or lavender. I didn't have any cedar EO, and I think eucalyptus might be dangerous for kitties, so I used lavender).

The blanket isn't done, but I'll sew on extra panels now rather than it being one solid piece. It's currently kinda lap blanket size. I want it to be a big bed blanket eventually. 😊 But it's CLEAN! And I can work on it again! Hooray!

So that was my needlework project this week. Happy Monday! 💚

That Red Fish your momma always warned you about

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