Dig deep.

No scarf this morning.  I expect I shall need one  before too long, but not just yet.

I've been very busy though I haven't knit hardly a stitch since Thursday.  Friday I got down to a major putting stuff away day, and moved around some furniture in the living room.  I dusted shelves and sorted various piles of books back to where they belonged.  Saturday I had company all day and had a wonderful time with Cassie and Marcus and their dad.  They came and brought me lunch and I bought them supper and it was a great afternoon. 

Sunday morning with my coffee, I looked at the mess at me feet and the mess in my sock yarn ends bag and gave up.

This is after I had sorted for a bit, but when I started, the jumble of tangled yarns was three times the size.  that's what happens when you have dozens of small balls and medium balls and larger balls of yarn and you dig through them stirring ends up.

The bag the ends were in was a giant sweater bag, the kind that are sold 5 to a box and are about 15 x 15 plus they have an expanding bottom.  These are my trusty storage bags for sweaters and all sorts of large amounts of things.  As I was mucking about, I realized that I really don't have that many sock ends.  It was just that they were as they were when I finished knitting, so masses of loosely packed yarn.  I knew that if I wound them into nice tightly packed balls that I could put the yarn into a much smaller bag. 

I also wanted to take out a few things that were not socks yarns or things that would felt on washing and move them to the other box of yarn ends.

I wound the really small balls of ends into one large magic ball of yarn. 

That bright blue and green in the front is it.  In between bright colours are some dull dark things.  I hope it makes a reasonable looking pair of socks.   It will be a ball that will just get knit as it comes till I have a pair. I've never done that kind of monsters yet.

It is a very good thing that I decided to do all this futzing with this bag of yarn.  I don't dig in it very often.  It gets added to but that is about it.  Winding the loose hanks showed me that in two skeins, which were knit into socks when I was still in Spruce Grove, had a very small part in the moth event I experienced there. 

Each skein sported on short bit, less than an inch each of yarn that was thin and suspect or that had that sandy gritty feel.  Because they have sat so long without any other sign of damage in any other bit of yarn from that bag, I am fairly sure I didn't have a problem.  Still, a dose of hot air is not going to hurt the yarn and it pays to be sure.   

These are currently sitting in a nice warm oven at about 180 F.  They will stay there for a couple hours till I am sure that even the very centre of the balls  is good and warm.  The bag that these balls were in is done for, which is sad.  It is such a useful size but it's construction means I cannot be certain that every tiny corner is clean.  There is nothing for it but to toss it.  I don't do that lightly.

I don't usually include these boxes with their secure bags in my stash dives.  The stash dives are the very best thing you can do to keep pests out.  Pests do not like to be disturbed so a good toss every couple months is vital. I will remember to go through all the bits from now on.  Lesson learned.

So sitting here, sipping coffee, baking yarn.  That is my day.  Not too shabby.