because I need a new project

The yarn I bought finally arrived, and, boy, does it ever reek. I knew it would, though. The woman I bought it from warned me that it had been stored in mothballs. Initially, I thought that was a deal-breaker, but, having used the yarn before, I knew it would be perfect for a new project I have in mind. Internet searches had already informed me that the yarn has been discontinued, so when the seller told me she had turned up another skein of yarn that she would include for the same price, that clinched the sale.

It took forever for the yarn to get here, but that is another story. Now that it has, I have to deal with the smell. Apparently some people actually like the smell of mothballs. I am not one of them. After opening the package, I immediately placed the box and its contents on the glider on the back porch. It was 38° degrees outside and raining, but the yarn spent the rest of the day and that night out on the porch. I couldn't have it in the house, after all. I brought it in the next morning, but it still smelled bad.

Next, I took it to the basement and loosely re-wound all the tightly-wound yarn cakes. It sat on an open shelf in the basement all day yesterday. It still smelled bad. Currently, the yarn is in a lidded plastic container with one of those room freshener cakes. This room freshener has been working for an entire large room in the basement, so I am hoping it will do that trick, but I am not optimistic.

I checked on Ravelry, of course, to see how other knitters have dealt with this problem. There is not a yarn-related issue I could possibly come up with that has not already been addressed on Ravelry. Suggestions ranged from ridiculous to way-more-work-than-I-would-ever-do. So now my plan is to try one thing and then another until a) the smell goes away or b) I get tired of trying and use the yarn anyway. I'll keep you posted. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

with the new season, a new job

Yesterday I shifted yarn for five hours. That might sound arduous or maybe boring to some of you, but you would be wrong. I loved it. I loved the color, the feel, even the smell of all that yarn. It was the semi-annual yarn shift at My Sister's Yarn Shop in Uniontown, just off I-77, north of Canton. Yesterday was my first day of work there. I look forward to many more.

I was in the shop a few weeks ago telling Judi, the shop owner, how much I missed everything about working in a yarn shop, but most especially when all the new yarn and pattern books for the season arrive. "Well, would you like to come work for me?" Judi asked, to my surprise. "Yeah!" was the best reply I could come up with, so here I am. Judi is a hands-on shop owner, which means she actually knows how to knit and help her customers when they get stuck. Further, she works every day, and knows her customers' names and preferences. This is going to be different.

I will try to keep you posted, but, hey, I'm going to be working, so cut me some slack.