Knitting: Purchasing a few extra tools and handcrafted cold processed soap using animal fiber

It appears that I’ll be starting my knitted blanket tomorrow. This isn’t the first time that I’ve started a knitted blanket, but it’ll be the first blanket that I complete. The others that I started, I wasn’t satisfied with. What makes me think I’ll complete this one? Well… it’s part of my ‘wrist therapy’ and my therapist gave me the ‘ok’ to engage in this activity and so I’m slowly making that attempt.

However, when I looked at my Hiya Hiya Steel sharp interchangeable knitting needles, I realized that I hadn’t purchased the cable converters for the Hiya Hiya large set and so I quickly remedied that and…

Hiya Hiya stoppers for the large interchangeable Steel Sharp set

I also noticed that I didn’t purchase the Hiya Hiya stoppers. End stoppers are something I normally don’t use, but… I did find with the other knitted blankets that I was knitting, that occasionally, when I set my project to the side, that my knit in progress would tend to “creep” to the end of the needles. No thanks!

In other news…

 

I’m planning to incorporate some of my spinning fiber (grey merino fiber if you want to be specific) into an upcoming cold-processed soap. The protein in the fiber tends to add a bit more bubbles. Silk is something I’ve seen used a lot by soapers and of course, I Googled since I do have a fair share of sheep, camel, goat and llama fiber and what do you know? All types of fiber are used in soapmaking.

Beer soap made with Guinness Draught Stout

I’ve been soaping for years. I started “assisting” my mom when I was very young, perhaps seven or eight years old? I continued soaping into adulthood. Artisan soap is the only type of soap I use. On Christmas day 2017, I made my first beer soap. No…. the soap does not smell like beer, but the addition of soap has produced a delightful lather and stable bubbles. True, I already get that from the soaps that I create, but the addition of the beer seems to have added more. Interesting…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.