Lessons in Soapmaking

If you line your mold with plastic bags, make sure it's not writing side in. I have nice Hyvee soap now.




(I'm not entirely sure it's soap. I licked it and it didn't zap me, so I think it's good. I let it sit 3 days before cutting but it's very very very soft still.)

It was really neat to make. Sadly I didn't pay attention when I added the color (really cool swirl) to see that the blue mica is not stable in cold process, so the color just disappeared completely. And honestly, it's kind of expensive to get all the oils. It's going to be a long time before I can use 12 bars of funky hyvee soap, but I hope to make more again sometime. (After they cure and I use them, I might give some away if they are any good)

Dye pot

When Suzy came over we did some dyeing with Wilton's icing dyes. Mine are old, so they didn't blend as well as they should (I suggested we use mine, knowing that if she didn't open hers yet they wouldn't dry out as quickly- since we wanted to use a sampler of all the colors.)

Gunky, or not, they still produced beautiful colors! Kevin just got a new dutch oven, so I arranged my nest of new yarns in it. I liked the way the small teal ball turned out so much I dyed one of my new skeins of Sheila's gold with the teal too!

I haven't had a lot to say lately. To tell you the truth it's because not much is going on. I lead a pretty boring life- don't sleep well at night, go to work, come home, attempt to sleep. That's about it. There is generally knitting thrown in the middle, and occasionally ice skating that I am not enjoying a lot, or yoga that hurts my calves. (I didn't make it to yoga today due to a stomach ache...)

Today, Suzy came over to play with yarn. We dyed up lots of semi-solids and I'll try to post tomorrow after they dry.

The other big news of the weekend is I finally finished the baby quilt. It's not a masterpiece at all, but it should be perfectly functional for a new baby. I hope baby and mom like it.

Here is the top: My favorite part is the really thin line diagonal quilting. I planned to do some more of it, but it turnd out it took forever, and I just wasn't up to it.

Turns out I love piecing quilts, but not so much quilting them. But the payoff is the back of a finished quilt. I love the way the designs look on the solid. LIke I said- it's not perfect, but I'm very pleased. I like the back better than the front, I think. (Good job picking the fabric Kevin!)

I had to use bias strip for the binding (though I didn't do the seamless binding technique, I took the sloppy, easy way out.) I usually just fold over the backing, but I accidentally cut into it when trimming the batting. Oops. So the backing got trimmed off too..
I'm happy to be done, and sorry I didn't make it in time for the baby's birthday.

Yarn Swap!

Remember the adorable pictures of mini skeins of yarn I posted a while back?

Do you want some adorable mini skeins of yarn? Yarn with silver, gold, or other metallic-ness to it?

Join the swap I'm hosting!
I'll even make it easy to you- after you've selected your yarn, ship it directly to me (or order it from my yarn store and I'll pick it up- contact me on Ravelry for more details) and wind it into mini-skeins for you.

For details, check out this thread: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/blankiemania/1211333/1-25

Nothing...

I've been absent from my blog because I just have nothing interesting to blog about.

I went to Zenergi today for the 4:00 hot yoga class. It wasn't hot at all (the thermometer said 89 when I walked in... we keep the house at 80, though of course the studio is all kinds of humid) but I was sweating like crazy.

Can I be un-PC and say I really dislike having men in the class. It's distracting. During one pose- at the very BEGINNING of the class- we wrung out hands together and a waterfall-like cascade of sweat poured off the man a few mats down from me. Ewwww... it doesn't stay on their mats, it pools all around them. And men rarely wear shirts in class, and some even wear speedos. It's never in shape men who don't have shirts on. I'm out of shape, I wear a shirt to hide my stomach. Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to be looking at other people, but I'm encouraged to watch myself in the mirror, if I'm seeing myself in the mirror, I'm seeing- even if I'm not focusing- the people around me too. And while I don't care what other people's postures look like, except maybe to try to correct myself to look like someone awesome- it takes me out of my practice to see waterfalls nearby.

My other rant- what the hell is wrong with my left calf. Everytime the instructor said "this should be a nice hamstring stretch" or "do xyz if your hamstring is tight" I felt NOTHING in my hamstring, but instead felt like my left calf was burning with the fires of a thousand suns and being torn open with a dull serrated knife. It usually does this, but tonight was particularly bad.

Maybe yoga is not for me. But neither is ballet, or skating, or cycling. What the heck am I going to do?

Blanket Update...

115 squares completed.

Thanks Gary and Linda!

We finally made beer-can chicken :) It was quite tasty- moist and tender. And it didn't taste like beer at all, which was a good thing in my opinion. The lesson we did learn though- if you don't eat skin (yuck!) season UNDER the skin. Although it smelled divine, we didn't get any of the great flavors. I ended up just eating mine with a bit of cracked pepper. One of the better pieces of chicken I've had in a while.

Yesterday was a very humid, but quite beautiful day. A nice break from the insane rain we've been having lately. Kevin was finally able to mow the lawn (it had been I think 3 weeks and was growing like a jungle) and then just a few hours after he finished, it started raining again.

Today Suzy is supposed to come over to play yarn. I've been knitting on my sock blanket a bit, and working on that test knit for Crazy Girl. I tried it on last night, and I think it needs to be longer than the pattern calls for, but is otherwise quite cute.

Test Knitting... the longest swatch

Isn't this the most beautiful yarn ever! It's Blue Heron Rayon Metallic (I think the colorway is Denim?) I've been eyeing this yarn forever- since a friend used it in a project. It's expensive, and I've kind of been on a wool fingering weight yarn kick lately. But this is what Crazy Girl gave me to test knit a pattern for them, and now that I've got my hands on it, I think I'm very likely to go back and get some in a colorway that really speaks to me. Something with some pink. Look at the sheen in that picture- it really has that, and it really sparkles. I just love it so much.

So as much as I'm in love with the yarn, so far I'm not in love with the design. And I'm not sure it's actually the design's fault. In fact, I haven't even gotten to the design yet. Just the swatch. This swatch is 3 feet long. I think the gauge is impossible, and I really hope it's a mistake. I know I knit kind of tightly- but this is absurd. The gauge is 12 st/40 rows = 4 inches, suggested on size US9 needles. To get 3 st/in I had to go up to size US15 needles, and by that point a row was like 2.5 st. I never got the row gauge, because to do it, I would have had to go DOWN needle sizes from the 9 I started with. I didn't swatch in that direction. I emailed the yarn store and I'm going to just ask them what size needle they think I should use (if the gauge isn't a mistake.) I like the drape of the US10.5 the best, but since it's not for me, I need to do what they want. I'd likely just knit it with the stitch count given, and if it's too small rip it out and start again by adjusting the stitch count- but that's not testing the pattern, that's just doing my own thing.

I did try the stitch pattern last night, and I did it at way too loose of a row gauge so it didn't look lovely, but I can see how it's going to be really cool if the row gauge was tighter. Let's hope I get to the point where I can actually do the pattern. I wish the gauge swatch would have worked out so I could have knocked this project out this weekend. Oh well.... the yarn store will have to wait I guess.

Something new for me...swatching

But first- the DNA scarf is blocked, ends are woven in, and Kevin's worn it. (Then put it away for the winter.) The scarf grew a TON in blocking. It's almost 8 feet long, which actually works well to wrap it around Kevin's neck and then let it hang down on a coat. It has a huge tendancy to curl, which blocking helped, but you have to smooth it out when you put it on. I'm a little disappointed that the blocking flattened out the base pairs (I think) inside the DNA structure. Oh well. I promised him this around 2005, so I'm glad to have finally done it.

I'm also working on a WendyKnits sock in Knipicks Felici, but it's been put aside for the project I'm about to describe. (ooh- and I got new yarns in for my blanket, but I need to do this next thing first...)

So swatching...

I'm test knitting a project for the yarn store. It's a cute little mobius style wrap - one of my friends actually made the basic version of it- but this is a variation with a lace design. The design- I can handle it no problem (though the yarn is so slippery it would be tough to recover a mistake.)

However, it's a good thing I love this yarn- I have spent HOURS swatching. I'm thinking the gauge might be impossible. I've swatched on every needle from size 9 to size 15 and I can't get close to what the pattern calls for. I'm going to bring the swatches to the store and see which needle they want me to go for. If it was me, I'd just pick one, and the design stretches, and I'm sure it was fine, but it's not for me- it's to check the pattern. I need to know what they want.

I really should go to WI

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Kevin's DNA scarf is blocked and ends are woven in. It looks good- but it's really long and tends to curl :( Pictures soon.