second saturday at homesteader's cache

Tomorrow there will be a soap making demo from 1-3pm at Homesteader's Cache - right around the corner from Mommy N Me. I love this soap! I'm hoping to make it there on Saturday with Sophie at least for a little while, it sounds neat. I've been using her soap and shampoo bars for over a year now and they are wonderful. The shampoo bars are my favorite - they last forever, smell good (I have the rosemary one) and my hair has way more body and wave than with regular shampoo. I went 'no poo' for a while (using baking soda to clean my hair), and while that worked well and I was pleased with the results, I went back to using the shampoo bar because I like how it smells and it's more fun than dumping lukewarm baking soda/water on your head in the morning. Yay for hippies and nice soap!

smoke ring

I wanted to knit something that was fast, easy, and pretty.... and for some reason I was in an old lady-ish mood and wanted something a little bit fuzzy and plain. I have strange tastes sometimes! Anyways, I found the yarn I wanted to use and then looked it up on Ravelry. I love looking through other people's projects with a specific yarn, it always gives me inspiration. What I found this time was the Old Shale Smoke Ring - and here it is!





Sorry for the bad iPhone pictures, I was too lazy to get off the couch, get my camera, find good lighting... You know.

Little miss took a 3-hour nap yesterday so I already finished this! And washed it and uh, stretched it out on a towel. I wouldn't go so far as to call it blocking. Again, lazy. Just need to weave in the ends!

I don't even know who this is for, I just wanted to knit it. I think it will go in my gift stash, I'm already stockpiling for next Christmas! I figured it's really more realistic to start now if I expect to have anything finished in time.

I can't believe that by next Christmas I'll be done with nursing school! Hurray! I better get back to paper writing if I want to finish though... :)

homemade hippy stuff

This is my laundry detergent:



I've been using it for..... well, over a month now and I love it! I'll definitely be making another batch when this one runs out.

I switched from the generic eco-friendly, unscented liquid detergent from Costco and I haven't noticed any difference at all - my clothes are just as clean as ever, and as a bonus they smell nice coming out of the washer because I used lavender soap in my concoction. The smell is gone once the clothes are dry, but if you like scents then I'm sure you could experiment with adding essential oils to the mix.

I found my recipe online somewhere, but I don't remember where. Sorry. But here's what I did:

2 cups washing soda
2 cups borax
1 bar of Dr. Bronner's pure castile soap, grated with a cheese grater

Combine all in a big bowl and mix with a fork, then transfer to a container for storage.

I'm using one heaping tablespoon per load of clothing, and two heaping tablespoons for rags and extra dirty stuff.

itchy

Sophie thinks everything is itchy - everything I knit, that is. I knit her a pair of socks out of merino and silk blend yarn and she even says those are itchy!
She says she likes the things I knit her, but then she won't hardly wear them. The only things I can get her to wear (sometimes) are her blue glacier sweater, her mittens, and her "warm pants" but only if she's wearing a layer underneath. And she wants me to make her a new sweater! Hmm. We'll see about that. I try to be really careful to make her things with soft yarn, but her standards and mine of what is "soft" are obviously very different. What will I do with her?

spiral noro hat

Sophie's turn this time:

This hat was such a fast knit and so cute - I might have to make another one in my size!

a hat

I've been wanting to make hats lately- lots of hats. I'm not sure why, although with more complicated patterns there is satisfaction of finishing something that looks rather complicated rather quickly. Like this:

When a certain someone gets home, there will be a proper picture.

I'm knitting the final rounds on another hat right now, and am browsing hat patterns on Ravelry right now as well. There are so many beautiful hat patterns out there, I may have my theme for holiday knitting this year. Hats for everyone!

Sophie wants that green hat, above (it's Koolhaas, by the way). I may have to figure out a child-size version for my next one!

sunkissed

I'm almost done with a shawl - my first project in laceweight for a long time. It's not actually a lace pattern, which is a little annoying, and it seems to go very slow (I've been working on the last ten rows for a week) but it is sure pretty!

The wait will be worth it, I'm sure. And finished soon - only four more rows to go!