First, I have a little bit of business. I changed my Ravelry username from casystotyle to knitthehellout. I didn’t realize I could change it until the other day, and I thought I should mention it. Knitthehellout just seems like a more logical tie to the blog to help people find me easily if they want to. Let’s be friends!
Last weekend I started preparing for storing my knits for the summer. This is the first year I’ve tried to be vigilant about it, after I found several holes in my knits last November. That was devastating, and most of the items have been repaired to a satisfactory level. The holes in my Still Light Tunic were too large to fix in a really nice way (according to my limited experience with knitting repairs in finished objects), but I will still wear it.
I don’t know if these holes were the work of moths. From the horrifying conversation that happened at knit night last week (all about moths) it seems like there should have been some kind of sticky residue on the item if it was moth-related, but nevertheless, I need to take some precautions.
You can see drawings my brother made as a kiddo.
This is the first year I’m storing things in a cedar chest. My mom generously let me have one of hers. I know I will soon outgrow this and have to thing of other storage options, but it’s good for now. I have taken the added precaution of rubbing lavender essential oil all around the very inside rim to further deter bugs. I’m unwilling to use moth balls. That smell isn’t worth it. I’ve heard good things about neem oil too, but I don’t know what that smells like.
I’ve read that it’s important to store clean items, because moths and other pests are more attracted to things that smell like humans. To save some sanity, I started putting my hand wash sweaters (pretty much all of them) in the washing machine just on the soak and spin cycle. I let them soak in Euclan no-rinse wool wash for about 40 minutes or so and then spin out the water. I read about this somewhere before (maybe Yarn Harlot?) and it seems to be gentle, but also an easier process for getting a lot of hand knits washed at the same time.
The drawback to this method is that I don’t have enough space to dry all of my sweaters flat in my less than 800 sq foot house. I use a drying rack and try to drape them in a way that will retain their shape as well as I possibly can. So far, in the couple of times that I’ve done this, the sweaters haven’t gotten out of their original blocked shape.
There are a few cold days left in the season, but I won’t be wearing most of these until fall. Sweet dreams, winter knits.
Wow that chest is just full of cozy sweaters! I need a solution like this for all of my handknits!
Living in Southern California I never thought about putting my knits away for summer. Granted I only recently made the switch to wool. After reading this I’ll have to start storing them in my cedar chest when they’re not in use. So thanks for the unintentional tip! haha
Good luck with the cedar chest! I do hope it helps – it would be such a shame if some dirty old moth chewed on that beautiful knitting! What about lavender sachets? Wouldn’t that work as well?
I love using lavender sachets too. I need to get a new batch of dried flowers and throw some in there.
Neem oil is great for keeping bugs at bay, but it smells strongly of rotten peanuts and garlic before fading into the smell of cat pee. Better to stick with cedar and lavender. 🙂
Eeeesh! I will definitely hold off on the neem oil. Thanks for the info.
Oh, thanks for the reminder to put stuff away! My cedar chest is packed full of old towels and sheets for some reason– gotta do some SERIOUS spring cleaning!
You are so good to your handknits! It will be so lovely in the winter when you open up your chest and see them all again.
What a job. I store my kids older clothes that I am saving for the younger ones in vacuum bags – you suck all the air out with a vacuum. They are air tight, water proof and apparently bug proof.
Not sure where your hole is that you can not fix – but have you considered a motiff or embellishment over the top to hide the hole? It might make it more wearable. Again this is something I do when the kids put holes in things like the knees – I felted flowers for one pair of jeans and they looked like brand new. Just a thought.
It’s actually sounds funny you pack your warm woolies away and we are pulling ours out! 13 earlier to day here.
Good luck with your cedar chest! I hope it keeps all the bugs away. And thanks for the tip about changing your Ravelry name – I didn’t know you could do that!
Your cedar chest looks so good filled with your handknits. I have a tip for keeping moths out of your knits too — be sure to give them a good shake before putting them away to get dust and other loose particles out. I also hang my knits out overnight to air them out before folding them and putting them away.
Thanks for the info!
I store mine with natural lavender or tea tree soaps amongst them… that’s what i do with my stash too, so far, so good… 🙂