August 2006 Archives

We are just about out of soap around here, so it's time to make more. I am not so daring as to actually make the soap, since I have the tiniest of kitchens, the vent fan doesn't work, and I don't have a hazmat suit.
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For a great soap recipe, that I will eventually try myself when the circumstances are different and I have the equipment, please see this and this great post on Kathy's site. She also has some great links on that second post that give more information about soap making.

What I do is make melt and pour soaps, which means I am starting with a soap base and then adding what I want to it. I use nice ingredients that I can control for the most part, and I know that the soap is soap and not detergent, which is what most commercial bar soaps that you buy in the supermarket are made of. I mean, would you ever consider using a bar of Zest to wash your hair? No, me either, but this stuff is wonderful and will make a great shampoo in a pinch.

Now I know there's the whole "Real Soap" vs. "M&P" debate out there, which is about as useful as the Knitting vs. Crochet argument. All have their place.

I thought I would share what I do, since this was all shared with me about a year ago from a work colleague and friend who gave a group of us a work a lesson and shared her knowledge and supplies with us. She taught us several techniques that she uses, including adding all kinds of crazy things like this amazing soap she makes with coffee grounds that smells like a sweet cappuccino!

I split 2 cases of soap with a friend shortly after we learned how easy it is to make soaps. I'm still working on that first case of soap, but am almost ready to either try actually making soap, or buy some more M&P. I'll decide after I finish up the last batch. I've experimented a little. My last batch used lavender buds from my garden (supplemented by some from the whole foods market) and lavender essential oil. It made a great soap for hand washing, but not for the shower, because the little buds would come off the soap and stick to the skin, which isn't really pleasant when you aren't awake yet. But you learn what works and what doesn't.

Here I'll make my favorite soap of the ones I've invented - sort of a citrus soap that ends up looking like a jello salad. You know the one with the coconut and lime jello and cool whip or something? I've made it before with Grapefruit scent and red soap too, and it looks good enough to eat.

So here's how I do it.

Gather your supplies: Fragrances, dyes, a mold to hold the finished product. I usually mold my soaps in household objects, such as a Rubbermaid drawer organizer, or some containers I picked up at the Marukai 98 Cents Superstore. (The Japanese have a container for just about everything, so that's a great place to look!) I've put links below to the vendor where I bought the fragrances and dyes, and the soap bases.

More Supplies: Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, a bench scraper and cutting board.

More Supplies: A microwave safe mixing bowl and rubber scraper.

I'll be using half clear soap base, and half white. Use the bench scraper to chop the clear soap into chunks. This helps it melt easier in the microwave. Melt on about 60% power for about 3-4 minutes, depending on your microwave. You don't want to see steam pouring off the top, you just want it melted so there are no solid chunks left.

Here it is all melted. I've added two drops of yellow dye and one of blue. Mix slowly and adjust the color if needed.

am going for a lime jello color, and this works for me. It's all mixed up. Depending on what you are going to do with the soap, you may wish to add a fragrance or additives now. In this case, I added a fragrance "Ginger Lime" to the soap, but no additives. They will come later. When I am making a bigger batch, I won't add the fragrance to the clear soap base, so that I can add it to other soaps that do have a fragrance.

Pour your soap into a mold while it's still warm (not hot!). Let it cool for a bit, till it becomes solid. At this point, I am done for the night because I am tired. I will let this mold set overnight, sitting on the counter. In the morning, I'll throw it in the refrigerator so it will be cool when I get home from work tomorrow, and can continue with the project.

Some sources for supplies:

• Wholesale Supplies Plus

You'll find fragrances and dyes here, along with the actual soap. This is the only vendor I have used, and I have had great service from them, but I am sure there are others out there that offer the same types of products.

• White Soap Base


• Clear Soap Base

Finally, I have attached the buttons and she's all done. Here's a closeup of the sleeve and front. This was taken inside with the flash, but looks pretty true-to-life.

A pose on the blocking board. I am going to do one more blocking - I still haven't blocked the front bands and that yarn hasn't been washed so I'm sure a blocking is needed.

And for the nosey people - an inside shot showing the totally woven in ends, even on the little squares. I haven't woven them all in, just the ones at the front edges which might show if the sweater is left open.

This is the Knitting Bag Jacket from Sally Melville's book The Knitting Experience: Color. Knit in Jamieson's DK Shetland wool. I forget what size needle. Whoops, so much for paying attention.

I like it. It's cropped, which I didn't think about before starting. If I had, I would have done a few more pattern repeats before starting the sleeves. All in all, I think it will be a great sweater for winter, and with all the tees I picked up at Target in the spring and last winter that are almost the same colors as the sweater.

When I was four, my mother remarried and a year later my brother was born. Six months after that, the house was too small so we moved. We moved to another state, so I had to take a placement test to figure out where I belonged. I was in second grade, but I had a fourth- or fifth- grade reading level, but the rest of me? Definitely second grade.

So I was placed in a second grade class; a double-room which had 50-60 kids and two teachers. When it came time for reading, I was placed at a little round table with two other kids, K and E, and we were reading from a fourth-grade book while the rest of the class read from some other books where they covered up portions of the page with strips of colorful construction paper. I never figured out why they were doing that.

Sometime during a summer, maybe between 2nd and 3rd or maybe later, K moved to a nearby town. I remember seeing him at a friend's country club pool one summer when I was old enough to notice these things and he was really cute and athletic.

Then there was E. We were both pretty nerdy, but I think he was nerdier than I. I don't know what to base that on, because I was the only girl who would play with H, who kind of looked like sleestack. But H had the lunar module from Space:1999 and the action figures and I got to be Maya. What little nerdy-girl would pass that up, even if H looked like a sleestack?

So there was a weird not-quite relationship with me and E over the years. In fifth grade, there were too many first graders coming into the three elementary schools in our town, so they decided to bus the fifth-graders to the high school, which had room. This meant that from where I lived, it took a good 45 min to get to school, and we were packed on the bus with the middle- and high-schoolers, so seats were at a premium. After several afternoons of waiting in line for the bus and having E cut in front of me, I finally got so pissed off that I whacked him over the head with my lunchbox.

Have you ever seen a head-wound? The blood was everywhere, and I remember when the principal came out to drag me in to his office to call my parents and suspend me for 2 days, we followed the trail of blood from the bus all the way past the nurse’s office. I was freaking out by this time, not knowing that the head bleeds like crazy on the smallest of cuts, and I don't even think E needed stitches, but I do remember that when I returned to the high school as a freshman, 4 years later, there were still blood drops on the tar outside from that day. But E never cut in front of me in line again.

In middle school, we were divided into 3 "houses" and each house was divided into 5 groups, and you pretty much traveled from class to class with your group. I guess now that the groups were divided according to our intellect. I was with the same group all three years, and of course E was in my group all the way through high school, I think. One day, in math class, we were taking a quiz or a test so the room was really quiet, and E farted a huge loud one that splatted against the stone-like seats we had. I think I gagged, even though it was just a noise, and it may be the same day that I had a nervous giggling fit that made the teacher take me outside to collect myself. (As an aside, I have a really easy gag reflex. The episode of Seinfeld where Kramer feeds Beefarino to the horse? GAG GAG GAG. I tried explaining the plot to a friend who had missed it and started gagging while telling the story. Trainspotting? GAG GAG GAG. There was a scene in that movie where I had to cover my eyes and ears to keep from gagging. You know which one, if you've seen the movie. Anyway...)

The last interaction with E that I remember was as we were lining up in our caps and gowns, getting ready to graduate. E comes up to me and I tell him he looks nice, and he tells me that he's freaking out because his family is out there, and he thinks he has to come back for summer school, and what's going to happen when he goes to get his diploma? Are they going to tell him "get the fuck out of here, you're not graduating" in front of everyone? So I found out that they just give you a rolled up piece of paper during the ceremony, and that your diploma comes in the mail in a few weeks, so he wouldn't be embarrassed. After that, I never saw him again, although there are things that happen in life that make me think of him.

Last week, an old high school buddy sends me an email to let me know I am on the MIA list for our 20th reunion. I look up a few of the other MIAs that were interesting, like a guy who used to draw great cartoons and was into TMNT before it was made into a kids cartoon. He was nowhere to be found. And then there was E on the list. I did a quick Google and found his web page. I read a couple of his essays and discovered (unless it's fiction) that he lived in LA for a while. Wouldn't that have been funny if we had run into each other all the way on the other side of the country? I also found some strange stuff on the page, including a photo of (him?) someone in bondage gear and a Darth Vader helmet and cape!! Now that's the kind of thing I would keep private about myself, but that's just me being a nerdy-girl.

What I want to know is; should I email him?

I'm so close, but still not done. I have moved on to socks and thoughts of other knitty goodness. But I did finally find buttons that I like enough to commit to. I went to several places and bought several sets of buttons that were wrong wrong wrong, but now I have the ones I want to attach. What do you think?

I just want to do one final steam block of the button band before attaching the buttons. I bought them at a strange place in Orange County that a fellow SnB chicky mentioned. The place was full of dust and I was so itchy when I left I had to use some of those silly wet wipes to wipe down my arms where they were breaking out in welts from the dust. I guess I have an allergy to strange dust, because there is no dusting going on around this place and I don't break out at home. Huh. Anyway, it was some Russian or Ukrainian woman running the place and she kept telling me about this great yarn she had and the great prices. I'm game, so I go digging through her very strange yarn room and come up with a few gems. She tells me the price and I don't think I want to pay that much for (nice!) yarn, but not as nice a price as she led me to believe. So I haggle a bit and walk away with only the buttons. I mean, I didn't go there for yarn, so no skin off my back, but if the price was right I would have bought the yarn.

Anyway. So I am moving on to some socks. These are from Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn and I love this yarn. I started about 2 weeks ago on these socks, toe up using Wendy Johnson's great pattern as a starting place. I got halfway up the foot and decided I didn't like it and ripped it all the way out and started again. And I don't like the short row heel, so I thought I would improvise a flap n' gusset heel, but from the bottom up. While I was contemplating this, the new Knitty came out and there was a pattern with the same heel I was contemplating, so I read up. That pattern was using much thicker yarn than I, so I did some math and started on the heel. When it seemed done, I tried it on and I hated it!

So I ripped it out again and this time started on size 1 needles and at the cuff end. After about 2 inches, I switched to Crystal Palace 2.0mm (US 0) dpn and worked my way down the cuff. I tried a new heel, that my SnB pal Monika uses and got halfway down the gusset when yay! My package from Knitpicks arrived containing some new 2.0mm 24" circulars and the set of interchangeables. I haven't tried the set yet, but I did unpack it all and put it together. I knitted onto the new 2.0mm needles and have been working on the rest of my sock and I love the needles. The cable is so flexible that I can use just one for the sock, unlike my Addi's or my Aeros. The join is just great, the needles are sharp enough for tight sock yarn knitting and I am getting a sore fingertip but I'll train myself to stop pushing the tip of my finger onto the needle to move the fabric along. Only my Aeros are that sharp. One other thing... the length of the needle is just right for me. A lot of the smaller needle sizes seem to have shorter needle shafts, which tend to make my hand cramp. Not these, I have been using them since Saturday and no cramps for me! I would recommend these to anyone who asks, and will probably buy the other sizes that aren't part of the kit, since I do tend to use small needles the most.

Oh, and by the way, that's not magic loop sock knitting you see there. That's knitting on a needle that's longer than your fabric is wide. Nothing magic, nothing you need to buy a book to learn, you can figure it out for free if you are the tiniest bit clever, or like me, frugal with the knitting tools til I figured out if this hobby was going to stick. I can't believe what people will pay good money for. (uh, no looking in my toybox, though, mkay?)

Later in the week I will try and use the kit needles with some silk I was playing with in the IK lace pattern in the summer issue. I don't really like the fuzzy fluffy of alpaca, so I thought I'd try silk, but have hated all my needles so far, because they are either too sticky or not pointy enough for thin yarn. We'll see.