Home-made Sponge!

Around the same time that I made the facial pads, I made this sponge.

It uses the same yarn, but it's just a triple layer.

It was a quick crochet, but honestly, I haven't found it to be particularly effective. It just gets really water logged.










Has anyone else had that problem? How did you fix it?

Ravelry Project

More Facial Pads

I wanted a few quick-finish projects, and in an effort to do so AND use up stash, I pulled out some deep stash (almost a decade ago) and whipped up these two cotton facial pads.

I use them for removing my makeup, and I have to say, so far, they're far more soft and comfortable than the ones I made before.

I have definitely become a fan of using cotton for things like this. I'd never used it before, really, and I always thought it felt crispy in my fingers, but (especially after washing) it's so soft once it's worked up.


Ravelry Project: Without Border

Ravelry Project: With Border

Bathroom Accessories

While we're on the topic of the bathroom, I thought I'd show you another quick project set I whipped up. Right next to my bathroom sink is a little ledge, and this is where I usually set my makeup brushes to dry after I've washed them. I had some fuzzy yarn to use up, so I crocheted up a quick liner for that area to help the brushes dry.

Ravelry Project: Brush Liner

While I was at it, I also made a little hanging basket. I roll my clothes instead of folding them, and then I put a rubber band around them to keep them rolled. What I love most about this is that I can rustle around in my drawer looking for the exact tank I want without messing up all of the others and leaving it a mess. However, I also end up with a pile of rubber bands as I take them off the clothes I wear. In our current apartment, my closet is right next to the bathroom sink, so I hung the matching basket there to hold those unused rubber bands.

Ravelry Project: Rubber Band Basket

Face Scrubbies

Before I headed off to Christmas, I really wanted a quick project that I could call a success, and so I knit up these cute face scrubbies. I use them at night to take my makeup off, and they're quite useful. I would definitely do this again - but for now, I'm on a rush to get next year's Christmas gifts off the needles, so these are sitting on the wayside.

Ravelry Project

Swiffer Cover

In keeping with my "Cold Sheep" pledge, I whipped up a swiffer cover so that I don't have to throw them out all the time!  It works pretty well, but I adapted the pattern a little by doing fewer circles across the top so that it would fit over the Swiffer.  I also have  a wet jet, so I wanted the places where the water comes out to be clear (though they're not totally).  Next time, I'll probably do chains that can tie across the top to make it easier to keep the liquid jets from just drooling into the cover.

Ravelry Project

Homemade Power Scrub (ie Comet)

I saw this tutorial over at DIY Natural a few months back, and have been waiting for my bottle of Parmesan to be empty to make it.  Well, this week was the week.

You will need:

• 1 cup of Baking Soda
• 1/2 cup grated bar soap
• 15-20 drops of essential oil (I used Melaleuca/TeaTree, Lemon, and Eucalyptus)
• Jar with shaker lid
• Food Processor/Blender

I doubled the recipe and used 10-13 drops of each of my chosen essential oils.  The next step is to blend it all together in a food procession, but I don't have one, so I tried to use a blender instead.  It didn't really work.  The soap gummed up the blades as I tried to run it, almost breaking the blender.  I had to keep turning it off and re-starting it, and several times I had to just stir it by hand to get the clumps out.  Not ideal

As a cleaning agent, though, it works great!  Once your mixture is all powdery, you simply transfer it to a receptacle of your choice, preferably a shaker-topped jar, and use.  I have a shower that doesn't drain very well, combined with hair that sheds like a dog in July, and bi-weekly egg, mayo, and honey hair treatments that get left all over the shower floor.  Needless to say, I'm always looking for a better, more long term cleaner, and I think I've found it.

It was super easy to use!  I just sprayed a bit of water in the tub, sprinkled the powder in, and then massaged it around with a wet sponge until it easily coated the bottom.  I left it on for about 20 minutes, and then wiped it off with clean water, and I had the most beautiful sparking tub!  It even stayed that way after two showers, and it wasn't until the third that it started to get scummy again!  Horah!

I highly recommend this.  It's super easy to make, pretty cheap, and works great!

I, however, wasn't able to fit the plastic top onto any of my glass jars, so I just left it on the Parmesan plastic.  I probably should label this in case someone gets hungry!  Good thing I don't have any kids!

Soap Cozy 2

Previously, I wrote about the Soap Cozy I made for myself in lieu of a washcloth.  As promised, I have come to report.  It works very well!  Except for the part where I left it at my parents house in Boston when I moved out here.

Well, lucky for me, last summer my hubby-to-be was really upset about leaving for California by himself.   I lovingly knit him one of his own to send his way as a surprise and to help him feel more at home in this strange new land.

I picked dark blue because it matched the towels he loved and took with him, and filled it with home-made soap.

I learned from my last one, though!  I made this one bigger so the soap could fit inside more easily, though it's still a hassle.  With my first one, I have to break the soap into slivers to slide it in now that the i-cord is fastened, and so with this one I almost doubled the width.  Overall, it still works well and gets the job done.

PS: No dying in my sleep of bacteria, though I do make a point to let it dry out and to wash it between bars of soap.

Ravelry Pattern
Original Ravelry Project | New Ravelry Project

Shampoo Bar Soap

While I was on a soap-making spree, I came across this recipe from Frugally Sustainable.  Since I had been looking for an alternative to commercial shampoo, I jumped right on it!  Here's the finished project.
Here's the problem.  It doesn't work.  It leaves a greasy residue in my hair and makes it tangly.
Has anyone else had this experience?  What did you do about it?  Commercial shampoos dry out my ends, while my roots grease up every day, and I'm hoping to switch, but I'm at a loss!  Advice would be appreciated!

Basic Soap Recipe

If you've been following this blog, you know that on Tuesday, I posted about How and Why you should make your own soap.  Today, I'm going to follow up with my favorite basic soap recipe.

This recipe provides a pretty good amount of lather (from the castor oil), a nice cleanse (from the olive oil), and a bit of moisture so your hands aren't left crusty (from the coconut oil).  This is a hot-process soap.

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces of water
• 2.75 ounces of lye
• 12.5 ounces of olive oil
• 6.25 ounces of coconut oil
• 1.125 ounces of castor oil
• Essential Oils (as desired)
• Colorants (as desired)

You'll also need some supplies:

• Hand blender
• Crock pot (about a quart)
• a plastic shopping bag or other liner
• a sturdy box (I used an old cardboard box from those 8-set yoplait yougurts)
• a scale (to get precise measurements)
• a soap-only spoon
• a heat-resistant glass container

So, now that you know what you need, here's the process:

1. Measure out your oils and melt them together in the crockpot.
2. Measure out your lye and water.  Make sure the water is cold and, very slowly and with caution, add the lye to the water bit by bit.  The lye will cause a heat reaction, so this should be a carefully controlled addition.
3. At this point, I add different colorants to each batch.  This is completely optional, but always use specific soap dyes for this (they're not that expensive).  If you choose to use colorants, read the label to see if they are to be added to the water (ie the lye solution) or the oils (what's cooking in the crockpot).  In fact, some are best to be added at the end.  Read up on your particular colorant.
4. When the oils and the lye solution are about the same temperature, slowly pour the lye solution into the oils.  At this point, any plastic ware or wood you are using (such as a spoon) should never again be used for food.  The lye will leave traces in wood and plastic.  Stainless steel, glass, and ceramic are safe.
5. Use the hand blender to blend the mixture to trace.  Basically, it should be the consistency of pancake batter.  When you lift the blender out of the mixture, it should leave convex trails of mixture along the top.  For this recipe, it should take 10 minutes or more.
6. Then, you put the lid on and just let it cook.  With my crockpot, this recipe takes about an hour and a half.  You should see the entire mixture crawl up the edges and fold over into the middle.  There will be a pool of glycerin in the middle.  You can either collect this or stir it back in.  Everything should have turned whiteish foamy, and then eventually go back to being transparent at least in some places.
7. If you're adding essential oils, add them at this time and stir them in well.
8. Pour the mixture into a plastic bag and lay it inside the box you are using as a mold.  Let it harden for at least 24 hours, then remove it, peel off the plastic bag, and cut it into bars.

Here are a few bars that I have made recently.  Each color signifies a different combination of essential oils.

Homemade Soap - How and Why You Should Make It

Last year, I got into Soap Making.

If you've never made soap before, this may sound a little strange.  Here are some basic misconceptions about making soap at home:

1. It's difficult.
Soap-Making is pretty simple!  It basically involves knowing three parts, and you just make sure to combine them at the right time!

2. It's expensive.
This one is also false.  Homemade Soap is a fraction of the cost of store bought soap.  There will be some up-start costs, and if you choose to use exotic oils in your soaps, then yes, it will be a bit more expensive, but even then, buying exotic soaps in the store would cost more, too.

3. The soap is bad quality.
Again, this is not true.  Like any hobby, soap making takes practice, but with time, beautiful, high quality soaps can be made at home.  The soap you make is also NOT less effective.

4. It's dangerous.
There is a little bit of truth to this.  While making soap, you are working with Lye and very hot oils.  Use basic chemical precautions and keep animals or small children away from chemicals and soap-making.  However, when done with care, this can be a safe and easy hobby.

Now that we've expelled some basic misconceptions, lets go on to explain other reasons why you should make soap at home!

1.  It's cheap. Very cheap.
2.  It's easy.  You make a batch and it lasts for a while.
3.  If you like it, you can experiment.  Add scents, essential oils, color, oatmeal, whatever!
4.  You control what goes into your soap.

Let me say that again.

4.  You control what goes into your soap.

Why is that so important?

Well, first off, there are tons of chemicals in store-bought soaps that are harmful to your body.  They seep in through your skin and can affect your mood, your homeostatis, and your brain.

But there's another reason.  Lets say you live in a family of five.  There's a baby with dry skin that needs gentle soap.  There's a teenager with acne.  There's a child whose skin gets little bumps from not being exfoliated enough.  There's a grandma with soft wrinkles.  There's a parent with dredlocks.

When you make your own soap, you can tailor each batch to a certain person.  No need to go to the store and buy expensive dredlock shampoo --  you can just make a soap with extra beeswax and jojoba oil instead of olive oil and they can use it as shampoo.  Soaps with oatmeal or coffee can exfoliate.  Some oils are more moisturizing, some are harsh, some are gentle, some are fairly typical.  You can learn the properties of each oil and each superfat and you can adjust to your loved ones, refining each batch a little more.

Store bought products might say "for dry skin" or "for blackheads," but each person's skin is made of different chemicals, and so it might be dry for different reasons, and what helps one person might make another worse.  When you make your own soap, you can avoid this trial-and-error with expensive products that just go to waste.  Make a small batch.  Does it work?  Great!  Make more!  Is it not the best fit?  Use it until it's gone, or bring it to the kitchen, or donate it, or shred it to make homemade laundry detergent.  Make another one!

Do I have you yet?

If so, read on, and I'll explain the basic idea of soap making.  If not, read on, and see how easy it is!

No matter which soap making process you're using (more about that later), there are several basic ingredient categories.

1. Fats.  These are usually oils, and any combination of different kinds of oils can be added in here.  Some recipes call for beeswax.

2. Caustic. Usually lye, every recipe needs a caustic.  Basically, this chemical interacts with your fats and chemically produces soap.  This process is called saponification.

3. Carrier/Liquid.  You'll need a liquid -- usually water, but sometimes milk or tea -- to dissolve your caustic.

Okay, so now that you've got an idea of what you'll need, lets learn about how to combine these ingredients.  There are two main processes for soap making -- hot process and cold process.  There are others, but they are more obscure are are better done with practice.

In both processes, first, you weigh out your fats.  Using a lye calculator, you can determine how much lye you'll need.  Always use a lye calculator.  Different oils have different amounts of fat, so your lye amount can change.  You usually leave a certain percentage of fats left un-reacted, called a superfat, as a buffer.  Too much lye can burn the skin!  Too much fat just makes it mushy.

Once you know how much lye you'll need, you can dissolve it into your liquid.  Always put the lye in the water, not the other way around.  If your oils are solid at room temperature, melt them, and combine them all together.  Then, you add the two mixtures together and stir them to trace.  Trace is a big spiffy word for "it looks something like pancake batter."  It means everything is mixed up.

This is where the processes differ.  In cold process, you pour your mixture into a mold and you let it sit for several weeks.  Then, you can use a spiffy tool to check and see if all of the lye has reacted.  If so, cut and use!

In hot process, you pour the mixture into a crockpot and basically bake the lye out.  There's a certain look it gets when it's done. (I suggest you google a picture).  At that point, you pour it into the mold, let it harden, and as soon as it's hard it's usable.

Soon, I'll post about some of my favorite recipes.  Stay tuned!

Has anyone else made soap at home before?  What are your favorite techniques and recipes? Which process do you like better?

Wool Dryer Balls

While I was on my homemade laundry products spree, I started looking for a way to make homemade dryer sheets and they all seemed really messy and complicated.  I just wanted something I could throw in the dryer to make my clothes smell good and to keep them from getting staticky.

That's when I stumbled across this DIY Wool Dryer Balls Tutorial.  As a knitter, I immediately was in my comfort zone.  Felting?  I can felt!  I had almost purchased dryer balls at the store the other day, but I was glad I didn't!

So, for those of you that aren't familiar with felting, here's the way it works.  It's actually pretty easy.  Have you ever had a wool sweater that you weren't supposed to put in the washer, but you did, and when it came out, it was smaller, tighter, firmer, and fuzzy?  You felted it.  Felting is where you take non-washable wool, usually in the form of yarn, and throw it through a washing cycle to shrink and bind it together.

So basically, to make these balls, I pulled out some old balls of feltable wool yarn I had left over.  You can use an old shirt, too, but just unwind it, and make sure it's non-washable wool and that it hasn't been washed before.  You make them into balls, tuck in the ends, and tie a small knot.

Here comes the fun part.  Take some old pantyhose and slide your first ball down to the toe.  Tie a knot in the pantyhose right around the ball, or, alternatively, tie some yarn or string around it.  MAKE SURE THIS YARN IS NOT FELTABLE, otherwise you'll have a caterpillar when you're done.

Add all the other balls in the same fashion. You can see my caterpillar here on the right, after it's been through a cycle.  (Look at the fluff leaking out from the felting process.)

Then you throw your caterpillar in with a normal load, through both the washer and the dryer.  Undo your caterpillar and take a look at the balls.  Can you undo them?  If you run your fingernails across, do the strands move?  If so, repeat the caterpillar cycle, but if they're not budging, you have successfully felted your wool dryer balls!

The next step is just to throw them in your load!  They bounce around, fluff the clothes, and reduce drying time.  You can also put a little bit of essential oil in the wool balls right before you throw them in the dryer; this will scent the clothes naturally as they get fluffed!  During this cycle, I was washing some sheets, so I used Bergamot and Petigrain, which help fight insomnia and anxiety, both of which keep me up!

Has anybody else done this?  How did it turn out?

Homemade Laundry Detergent

When I moved to San Francisco, I moved into what had once been my husbands bachelor pad.  During the time before our wedding, he continuously expressed his interest that I would "hurry up and graduate so I could make this place a home and not just a place to sleep."  Well, needless to say, when I got here, there was quite a bit to be done!

One of the things that my husband did was buy a box of laundry detergent.  Because he'd been using it for six months before that, it had about ten loads left by the time I got here.  As someone who's always been on the "do-it-yourself" edge, I decided that while we were waiting for it to finish off, I would research making my own laundry detergent and fill the box up with my own concoction when it was empty.

I based my version off of DIY Natural's recipe.

Supplies:
-1 (or 1.25) cups of Borax
-1 (or 1.25) cups of Soda Ash
-4.5 (or 5.625) ounces of Grated Ivory Soap
-A container for your finished product

The first step is to obtain your ingredients.  The container was easy, since I was just using an old one.  Any jar or box would work.

I made my Soda Ash by hand the day before, and pulled out some old Ivory soap I wanted to get rid of.  You can use any natural, Castille, or handmade soap in this recipe, which I usually do in my cleaning supplies, but I had some old Ivory bars I wanted to use up from before my soap-making days, and since the recipe said go for it, I did!

Grating the soap turned out to be a laborious process.  I used a simple cheese grater, but I'm sure there are other ways to do it.  The original recipe called for a 4.5 ounce bar of soap, but I found that if I grated two bars until they were just about stubs I couldn't hold anymore, I ended up with 5 and 5/8 ounces of grated soap -- exactly 125% of what the recipe called for -- so I simply added an extra quarter-cup of the other two ingredients and wha-la!

Once you have all your ingredients, the next step is to add them together and stir for five minutes.  Easy enough, right?  WRONG.  I kept having to stop because I was coughing from breathing in all the soap particles.  While you're stirring, the volume of your mixture actually decreases a lot, partially from breaking the bits up more, partially from minimizing empty space, and partially from all the dust it releases into the air.  I highly recommend doing this step outside or in a well ventilated room!

When I was done, the finished product fit nicely in my old box, so I threw a rubber-band around it and put it in the closet.  I can't wait to use it!

For each load, you only need a tablespoon!  That's right, just a tablespoon of the detergent.  I'm estimating there's just over 3 cups of detergent in the box right now, which is about 50 tablespoons.

Let's take a look at the cost:

Box of Borax: $4.29
I used: 1/4
Borax: $1.08

Box of Baking Soda (to make Soda Ash): $1.35
I used: 2/3
Soda Ash: $0.90

Ivory Soap 10-Pack: $4.50
I used: 1.75 bars
Grated Soap: $0.79

Total Cost of Detergent: $2.77

That's about half what the original box of store-bought detergent cost!  Now here's the kicker:

Homemade Detergent: $2.77
Makes 50 Loads
5.5 cents a load

Store-Bought Detergent: $5.50
Makes 15 Loads (as per box)
36 cents a load

Look at that!  You've saved 85% of your cost of detergent!  What's not to love?

Next time, I'll tell you about another way I found to cut costs on laundry.

Has anyone else tried this?  How does it work?  Any tips?  Let me know in the comments!

How to Make Washing Soda/Soda Ash

When I first arrived here in San Francisco, I had a lot on my plate!  I'll talk more about that tomorrow, but one of the first things I looked up was how to make my own laundry detergent. It seemed pretty simple: three ingredients, two steps, what could go wrong.

Something pretty serious went wrong -- one of the key ingredients, Washing Soda (also known as Soda Ash), wasn't available anywhere in my area!

I started wondering: what's the difference between Baking Soda and Washing Soda, anyway?  Can I just use Baking Soda?

That led me to this post, by Penny of Penniless Parenting.  And then this post, by Jill of One Good Thing.  And then this one, from Nature's Nurture.  There seemed to be a pattern: bake Baking Soda to make Washing Soda!

This was perfect!  As a soap-maker, Soda Ash is a must-have to counteract lye spills, and I'd never gotten around to getting some, so here I was, discovering that I could shoot two birds with one stone.

So I gave it a try!  Here in our tiny apartment, we don't even have a real oven, so I spread some Baking Soda into a Bread Pan that could fit in my mini-oven I brought, and baked it at 400F for an hour.  If I were you, I would use a cookie sheet.

I took it out and it looked clumpy.  Not what I wanted.  I put it back.  Much grainier, but still a little clumpy.  I stirred it, looked at pictures on the posts mentioned above, and decided it was good enough.  I ended up doing three "shifts" with the Bread Pan to get through a box of Baking Soda, but it worked!

The one problem I've had so far with moving across the country is that I lost my container collection!  Ah, well.  I put the Washing Soda in an old Ricotta Cheese container from last week's lasagna and labeled it.  Stay tuned to find out how I used it!


Has anyone else done this before?  How did it turn out?  I'd love to hear about it!

Snowflake

I finally finished a snowflake pot holder from a pattern I snagged for free at JoAnn's Fabrics back in January.  Here it is! :)  I might make some more, too!

It didn't take that long, though the pattern was a little confusing between rounds 2/3 and 3/4.  I like it a lot!

Ravelry Pattern | Ravelry Project

Freedom in the Air

Something I've been working on recently is being more home-minded.
One of the outcomes of that is that I (finally!) started using my clothesline!  It was warm enough on Tuesday to put my clothes outside!

And then there was a problem.  Tuesday night it got cold again, but I had class and wasn't able to take them down before dark.  Wednesday I was out of the house before it was light for work, and then straight from work to class to a meeting, and then drive across town to tutor for three hours.  During that time, there started to be these flurries of sleet.  Where they came from, I have no idea, but by the time I got home again, my clothes were soaked.

I managed to take in a few articles of clothing and hang them on the one, flimsy, house clothes-rack we have.  And then I changed, went to class, came home after dark, and slept.

Thursday it was windy.  I mean 30-40 mile an hour gusts.  I left the house before it was light, went to work, class, a meeting, went to the library for a few hours, class again, and I got home around 9:00pm, after dark, exshausted.

My housemates were not amused.  "Sweetie," they said, irritated that they, the 24- and 26-year-olds, had to tell me something so basic again, "you need to go get your clothes off the line.  And the bushes. And the trees.  And out of the squirrels' nest."

I stared at them for a minute, and then turned around and went right back out.  It took me almost half an hour to find everything, untie it from the line, and pick it up with my numb fingers in the dark, when the wind was not on my side.  I went inside, threw the heap on the table, and went to bed.

I suck at house-keeping. I told myself. I'll never be able to do it right.  Even that soap...you literally exploded the stove burner...

I sat up, shook my head, and lay down again.

It doesn't matter.  Yes, I'm getting married in December, but I'm not perfect.  It's okay that I don't know everything there is to know yet.  That's what life's about, right?  Learning and living from that and moving on and becoming someone new.

I'll try the line again when it's warm out, and this time, I'll make sure I can be home to take the clothes down.

Soap Cozy

I'm home for the week!  Well, until Thursday, that is, and then I'm off to my fiance's house for the second half of the week.  We're very lucky because his family's house is between our school and my family's house, so when we get time off, we can go to both.  However, in all the crazy shuffling of the last few days, I forgot my bath scrubby at my home by school!  Eep!

Well, I happened to bring a few skeins of worsted yarn that I wasn't really using for anything, and since a soap cozy has been on my project list for quite some time, I whipped one up in the last 24 hours.

Well, I chose brown yarn because the other options were gray and white, both of which looked dreary or messy.  The cozy itself was pretty easy to make, but I had trouble getting the soap in when I was done.  I may have made it a bit too small!  The bar was unused, but a few months ago (while I was home last for Christmas), I had unwrapped it and put it in a soap container (which still had water on the inside).  Because of this, the soap was infused with water and was moist and creamy, so when it was a little big for the cozy, some extra soap just kinda slid up the edges and formed lovely curls, which I promptly destroyed by shoving them back in the top before pulling the i-cord through.

I haven't used it yet (but I will when I shower tonight!), but my mother is convinced that it's going to become moldy and kill me with bacteria in my sleep, or somesuch.  I'll be sure to let you know if it does.

Have any of you ever used a soap cozy before?  Did it work, or was it more of a hassle than it's worth?

Ravelry Pattern | Ravelry Project