Are you familiar with the Yarn Harlot AKA Stephanie Pearl-McPhee? She wears her shawl while eating breakfast. I plan to wear mine a lot as well. I have a plain one that I often wrap over my shoulders while I am studying.
Higs, Katherine
I've had things eaten by moths even though they were out and being used. I've also tried cedar and all the herbal remedies, and unfortunately, the only thing I've found to work is either the old-fashioned mothballs or else something with insecticide in it.
It takes me all my time to remember to fasten my shirt and take my pills, if Spouse didn't put out breakfast things I'd probably not think to do that too.
I simply don't have an organised life :-(
Mary
How terrible to have such a significant piece ruined! I'm so sorry.
We keep our woolens in a cedar closet, and my yarn bags all have blocks of cedar (it's actually American juniper) scattered through them, but as others have mentioned, mixes with lavendar in them should help as well.
Your health-food store might have bottles of juniper essential oil, which you can dab on cotton or cardboard and place in your closets. My sympathy.
Thanks for the sympathy - and suggestion. I have a bottle of oil of juniper, I'll dig it out. It's far too late for the shawl butI have other woolens.
Oddly, the ones in my drawers don't get moth, it's a Victorian chest of drawers so might have some cedar in it anyway. We have a large military chest in which I store our wool and linen period clothes, they're not affected by moth and I know that's cedar.
Mary
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If that happened to me I think I would be inclined to call an exterminator to get rid of any moth nests which might be lurking in odd corners of the house.
Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.
I've also read that a light sanding to raise the grain of the cedar can help bring out more of the moth-repelling oil in it. I'm lucky enough to have my late grandmother's cedar chest from her wedding in 1926, which isn't just lined with cedar; it's solid cedar.
Be very careful how you store stuff in there. For instance, old linens and light colored woollens should be double wrapped in acid-free paper so as not to be stained by the cedar oil. Some folk who thought they were being so good for having things in cedar chests have been horrified when they pulled out their antique textiles.
Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.
Lavender helps. Cedar oil helps.
Keep in a tightly closed chest with sachets of lavender near any openings. I use lots of cedar balls, which I renew each spring by soaking them in a plastic bag with some cedar oil for a few days. Then put them into old socks which I lay along the front of the closets and hang around the closets.
Precious wool can also be place in a tightly woven bag of linen or nylon. The bag should be hung in a bright an airy place such as an attack. This is how the old timers kept their wool from spring shearing to late fall when they had time to spin. Wool cloth was also kept in the linen bags hanging in the attic until it was needed.
I put a little lavender oil in my rinse water when I am washing wool, and have not had any loses since I started that program. (Of course I also go through half an once of cedar oil each year.)
Aaron.
Oh - that's a good idea, thanks!
Moth larvae eat linen in our house - honestly. All the linen clothing (period) I have in the cedar military chest is fine but that which has been left to put away later (months ago) isn't. It takes longer for the larvae to develop a taste for the linen but they go between the folds and pupate there.
Lavender oil in the rinse water sounds very nice. I'll do that!
Mary
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