Moth - or as Inspecteur Clouseau would say: meurth ...

this summer in England has, apparently, been very good - or very bad, if you are a lace knitter - for meurth. :( seemingly the warmer weather, and especially the lack of cold winters to kill off the little blighters, has led to them breeding in ever greater numbers, needing ever more supplies of food - and guess where they find it? :/ this has reached such a pitch that even no less hallowed a source than The Times featured the problem this week. i actually already knew about this, because my youngest daughter (mother of ellie, and knitted textiles BA student at Central St Martin's) had a mega-infestation in her (also mega-, but she's got a better excuse that me ;) ) stash earlier this year. she spent a long time picking out the good stuff from the bad and deep-freezing it, whilst cleaning out all the horrible little blighters and their leavings. - heartbreaking ;(

anyway, as i have caught two of the wretched little things in the past two days, this has led to me waging a great campaign to have all our sweaters, suits, jackets, etc, and especially my precious stash, out to check, clean and put back (at great expense, according to Peter, as we had to buy cedar thingies, until i pointed out the comparative cost of replacing even one of his lovely handmade suits!). we are using lavender, cedar balls and hanging cedar blocks. anybody else out there had this problem and/or got a patent remedy? all the dreadful chemicals that were so effective have now seemingly been banned. and a good thing too, i dare say. in any case they were a) smelly, and b) dangerous.

my second daughter once (aged 5), annoyed because all the attention was being centred on my newish boyfriend's 21st birthday, went upstairs, found a mothball (not easy, because i had hidden them really well, i thought), and ate it. she came downstairs spitting wildly because it tasted awful. nonetheless, we felt it prudent to take her to the hospital, where she was fed ipecacuhana and kept in overnight, resulting in our spending the rest of the birthday in casualty - result (for her!) but not for us, because the gourmet dinner i had planned in celebration was ruined - not the wine, though. so we drowned our sorrow! ;)

on a happier note, my Sarah Don, The Art of Shetland Lace turned up today. i am saving it to read on the very long car journey to Ullswater tomorrow. we are off for a few days R&R. i must say, i am seriously impressed with Lacis, from whom i ordered it only last week, result - for me! ;)