Raspberry Soap Saver

I wanted to make my own soap sack for a while now. My mother-in-law gave us 24 bars of soap and I've  been making my own soap at home, so I've been trying to transition my husband to soap bars. My husband's big issue is he only likes washcloths and nylon loofahs, and he's not very receptive to a soap sack because then he has to have an additional washcloth in the bathroom, so I got to thinking. I originally searched on Ravelry and made a soap sack out of kitchen cotton, and IMO, the result was horrible. The soap sack never dried, and my soap became a mushy, dirty, gross mess. I ended up remaking it with crochet cotton, which worked wonderfully, so now I'm addicted. This soap sack will dry completely within 24 hours (in California), works great as a washcloth, and helps with lathering.

This is the first crochet pattern I wrote up. I borrowed a simple shell pattern, and also the Raspberry Stitch Pattern.

Shown here with my handmade goat milk lavender tea tree soap. 

Materials: 10 g (55 yards) of No. 10 crochet thread in mercerized cotton
                   1 piece of ribbon

Hook size: D 3.25mm

Finished size: 1 inch x 2-1/8 inch x 3-1/8 inch without the lace.

Base: 

• Chain 13, hdc in 2nd chain from the beginning, then hdc the remaining of the chains (12 stitches)
• hdc row 1-5
• sc in each hdc, then do 6 sc on the border, sc in each of the chain, then do 6 sc on the border (36 stitches)

Body: 

     Work raspberry stitch for 18 round by doing this: *work sc, dc, sc in the first stitch; skip two stitches* then repeat *~*to the end.

Edging:

     Round 1-3: sc in each stitch around.

     Scallop edge: *skip sc; dc, dc, trc, dc, dc in 3rd sc; skip sc; sc in first sc* around.

Finish: Weave in ends, then weave the ribbon through the last row of the raspberry stitches.

Note: This soap sack will stretch once it is wet, but it does not affect it's awesomeness. When it's dry, it'll stick to the soap. Just peel the soap sack off the soap before you shower and it'll work great as a lathering agent and also as a washcloth.

"Chinese Yuan"

Every time people say "Chinese Yuan" I cringe.

What is "Chinese Yuan"? Or "Chinese use Yuan." Really? Do Americans not use "Yuan"? Everyone uses "yuan" because "yuan" is not a kind of money. It's a counter. 

Money in PRC (People's Republic of China) and ROC (Republic of China) actually have names. In PRC, the name is Renmingbi, or "People's Dollars", and in ROC, the name is Xingtaibi, or "New Taiwan Dollars".

TIL from The Skinny on Obesity

I know I owe this blog a post on the LA County Fair (which I placed first place in the Intermediate group, yay!), but this post is about The Skinny on Obesity.

I just found this awesome program today and it's addicting enough that I finished all seven 10-minute episodes in one sitting. I highly recommend the entire series to anyone who's interested in why they battle with weight issues and why they can't lose weight. As a person in this modern era, I struggle with food and weight like everyone else, and I feel like I learned a lot from this series. The series does not talk about diet or losing weight, but it does give you tips on how you might go about losing weight without dieting.

The link to the program is here: The Skinny on Obesity

I will post my TIL and tl;dr from the series after the jump.

Ventura County Fair Wool Spinning Competition

Ventura County Fair's Wool Spinning competition was today, and Craftydiver invited me to carpool with her to the competition. :) That was lucky because gas would have other wise cost a pretty penny.

Craftydiver and I had to endure quite a bit of traffic on the way up. (Well, mostly she had to endure it, since I just had to sit there.) However, we got there just in time for the competition, with enough time to use the restroom and relax. The competition was split into seven classes: Novice Spinning Wheel, Novice Spindle, Intermediate Spinning Wheel, Intermediate Spindle, Advanced Spinning Wheel, Advanced Spindle, and Masters Class. I think you have to win in the Advanced Class to move onto the Masters Class. Every class can have up to five placements, depending on the number of participants. Basically, if you show up you'll likely win something. Today, there were nine people in the competition only. There were three in the Beginner's Wheel, two in Intermediate Wheel, four in Advanced Wheel, and I'm fairly sure no one participated in the spindle competition even though every one brought a spindle. Wait, One person participated in Beginner Spindle I believe, but I think all beginners were judged together.

Rose Hairstick

I noticed I never showed a picture of my favorite hairstick of all time. I picked this up from Fleur du Jour at the Renaissance Faire in May, and I intend to pick up another one next May if they come again. They don't have a website nor an Etsy shop, which is a shame. Now, I'm fully aware they are not the only ones that make dipped resin rose jewelries, but they are the only ones that make dipped resin rose hair sticks, and mama needs some hairsticks! 

I am aware that if I get desperate enough I can make my own, but that involves learning how to finish wood and make little wood dowels. Otherwise I'm pretty sure you just stick the wood sticks into the roses, secure with some resin/glue, then dip the roses in resin until you have enough coating on it to protect the roses, then glue on some fake leafs. Sounds easy enough but how do you make little wood sticks with finish? Sigh. I'm tempted to get some dowels from Michaels, sharpen the tip with a pencil sharpener, learn to finish the dowel, and see if I can make this hairstick thing happen. I love it so much but why can't I find the shop online? 

Dye Day 2012 Follow Up Post 1

I spun some samples and spun up one of the 2 oz braids that I painted on Dye Day.

The samples turned out like this:

2012 GLASG Dye Festival

Every year, around the end of June, members of GLASG meet at a secret location (aka the home of a very generous member who shall remain nameless) to dye things. We each bring our own portable stoves, pots, pre-soaked fibers, vinegar, ziplock bags, thermometers, 35" chopsticks, buckets to rinse fibers in, and rubber gloves, and the guild will provide dye and cling wrap. This year, the Guild President Lorinda also invested in some disposable aprons (yay!). Just a note, those work way better than my original idea of a hospital gown. Hospital gown would've worked if it wasn't so damn hot.

This year, I had planned to dye 1 lbs 3 oz of superwash merino pencil that I won at the LA County Fair last year. (Apparently I didn't post about it, but I won grand champion as a newbie spinner with only 4 months experience! It was totally beginner's luck and I do not expect to repeat that grand performance again, but it was awesome while it lasted.) I also planned to dye some BFL and Merino/Tencel that I bought at the Dye Festival last year from The Dizzy Ewe.

I knew I wanted the SW merino pencil in grey, and Lorinda helped me pick out some colors for my first attempt at hand painting fiber (because she's awesome like that.) 

I had raspberry, purple, grass green, macchiato, and hunter green. 

Here's the process:

First, I mixed the dye up (duh). Then, I poured vinegar directly into the dye I mixed to dilute the dye. Be careful you don't dilute it too far to cause the color to be too light for your taste. 

Then, I laid out a disposable table cloth, because it would be a horrible thing to stain someone's backyard with my dye. Then, I laid out cling wraps on the table cloths, then my fiber, with as much water squeezed out as possible. 

I then used painter brushes (either foam or actual brushes, I had both) to paint the fiber with my dye/vinegar solution. 

After I was done, I laid another layer of cling wrap on top of the fiber, rolled it up, careful not to let different sections of fiber touch, and dropped the fiber in a ziplock bag. Make sure the ziplock bag is not too big. IMO, gallon size or smaller is best. 

Then, I poured enough water into a stainless steel pot to cover the steam tray in the pot (that Andrea loaned me because I forgot to bring my own, thank you Andrea), put the ziplock bags containing the dyed fiber on top, steam for about 40 minutes, let the bags cool on their own, rinse out the fiber, dry, and voila!

As for how long does it take for the bags to cool? I don't know. I was too tired to deal with rinsing out the fiber so I did it 24 hours later...)

Results:

I first tested the colors on some Corriedale I brought as color testers. Those ended up like this:

It appears colors are more vibrant on Corriedale and BFL than they are on Merino/Tencel. 

Then, I did the Merino/Tencel because I knew I wanted it in raspberry and macchiato:

Maybe my eyes are failing me but I just don't think the colors on the Merino Tencel turned out as well as the colors in Corriedale.

I did the BFL last because I had no idea what I was doing. This was a mini experiment of mine, to do one planned, with stripes of certain pre-determined length, and one randomly however it pleased me, and see how they turn out, both after they are dried and after I spin them up. The BFL was chosen to be the random one. I had 5 colors that complimented each other (in my opinion anyway), and I just winged it. I started with raspberry because that's my favorite color, then I dumped some green, some light green, dabbed some purple randomly, dabbed some macchiato randomly, and essentially just did whatever pleased me.

When I was done, my first thought was, "I screwed up. :'(", but all is well, since dye day will happen again next year, and there's always more fiber to try out. However, when the fiber dried, I was amazed! The colors turned out so well I wish I did a 4 oz or 8 oz batch instead! We will see how this spins up. I will post photos.

The 1 lbs 3 oz of SW merino did not turn out well. I should have stirred the pot as I dyed since I knew superwash fiber tend to take up fiber dramatically wherever the fiber touches the dye. I dropped the fiber and dye in the post, then poured in vinegar. I should have dropped the dye in first, then fiber, mix it up some, then vinegar. In any case, it did not turn out grey. It turned out black and white. There are the really black parts, and the really white parts, but there's really no grey in there. I wanted to redye it, but Mr. Tako liked the result, so I'm going to spin it up first to see what it spins up like. If I don't like that, then I'll dye it vermilion or some shockingly dramatic color.