Rain, rain, go away.

It's been abnormally cooler here so far this June.  I actually contemplated turning the heat on for a bit yesterday.  I managed to restrain myself and opted for adding a sweatshirt over my long sleeve shirt.  The rail road ties for our new patio project were going to be delivered yesterday.  It was raining so hard from Tropical Storm Andrea that the delivery was rescheduled until next week.  At least the ground will be easy to dig where we are adding the patio! Our soil here is red clay and when it is dry it seems almost as hard at concrete to dig.  It's going to be a wet weekend here so I think we will be working on some inside projects.  After seeing a larger-than-a-small-dog spider in the basement, I'm hoping we can do a bit of organizing down there.  We still have a few things that need to be sorted from when we remodeled the kitchen last year.  Andy is going to help which is great because I think the spider is now under the dryer.  I sprayed it with wasp spray but it took off so quickly that I think it may have survived. 

I finished the back of the Tempest sweater.  It's such a cute pattern and very easy to follow.  I'm hoping to start the front's this weekend.  We picked up Warm Bodies and The Guilt Trip from Redbox.  It's going to be a perfect night to curl up and watch movies. 

If you are working on a striped project and having trouble carrying your yarns, I put a little tutorial up on Ravelry.  It's in post #253 in this thread.


Kristi sent me one of the new Another Way Kit's from the last Shalimar Etsy update.  I just love these colors, this grouping is called Vero Beach. 

It's not like I didn't have anything else on the needles that I should be working on, but I just had to cast on as soon as the kit arrived!  The Another Way pattern is so much fun and really quite easy.  The colors are really happy and cheerful. 

Needle felting therapy is still going on.  I think my arm muscles are getting into great shape from it. I think I need to work on the mushroom house a bit more.  The top looks a bit flopper than what I had planned.

Ive coerced Beth into felting too.  She came over last week and made the cutest gnome.  I wish I had taken a picture of him to show you. 

Que

How many projects should you have in your que on Ravelry?  I mean really, right now I have 533 things to knit in my que.  There are a lot of sweaters in there.  If I knitted 8 hours a day for the rest of my life Im not sure that I could knit all the items in my que.  It takes me about three evenings to knit a sock so potentially I could knit 52 pairs of socks in a year.  Provided that no frogging was involved and we all know how that goes.  I either need to stop adding things to my que (difficult as there are so many cute cardi's out there that are begging to be knit) or dedicate more time to knitting.  Right now I only have two projects on the needles, Tempest by Ann Weaver in Breathless Ore and Love Potion.  I'm thinking of adding one large stripe towards the top in Blue Raspberry but haven't committed to that yet.  I'm also working on the second sock for the new sock design.

Ive gotten really distracted by the needle felting.  Which is great, but it's really cutting into my knitting time.  I spent a week working on this owl.  She is close to life size. 

 

I'm also working on a large mushroom house for the gnomes from the last post.  While I did order a crazy number of couple of felting kit's Ive also been using some roving that I purchased at my first MDSW.  It came in a huge bag and wound up being courser than what I like to spin. I've tried to re home it several times and there haven't been any takers.  I'm so glad it stayed here because Ive really been having a blast needle felting it.  

Does anyone have fun plans for the weekend?  Tonight I'm making Wiener Schnitzel, German Potato Salad and cooked red cabbage.  We are going fishing either tomorrow or Sunday and I'm really hoping we can go to the movies and see Star Trek.  A few years ago a new theater was put in and it has stadium seating with arm rests that can flip up.  The seats are really comfortable and it's a great place to go on a hot summer day.  We are also working on plans for a new patio area.  I'll have progress pictures soon (I hope!).

PS I finished Ardelise but need to block it!  Yay!  That was a LOT of stockinette!  And did you see that Signature Needle Arts now has convertible needles?  They look super cool!

Felted Soap

Looking for something quick and easy to make and give this Holiday Season?  Felted Soap makes a wonderful gift that even non fiber (are there such a thing?) people will love. 

 To get started you will need assorted colors of feltable roving. 

I have a big bag that came from Stony Mountain Fibers in Charlottesville, VA.  Barbara Gentry, the owner, has a lovely assortment of wool roving in all sorts of colors displayed in cubes along one wall of her shop.  I went through and put a random assortment of colors in a bag just for making soap and needle felting. 

You will also need the following:

Bars of soap  Obvious, I know, but you will still need them.  This batch came from our last vacation.  It's Crabtree & Evelyn and it was a nice hotel.  That's all Im saying!

Heat resistant kitchen gloves.  Mine are latex free.

A large glass container that can go in the microwave.  I use an 8 cup glass measuring cup.

Step one: fill the glass container 2/3 full with water and heat in the microwave until steaming but not boiling.

Step two: take small pieces of roving, about  twice as long as the bar of soap you are using, open them up and lay them on top of each other.  Randomness works best and gives the most interesting results.

You want to make sure the roving is thick enough so that for the next step no part of the soap will show through.

Step three:  Determine which side of the roving you want to show on the finished soap and place that side down.  Place the bar of soap on top of the roving.

I wasn't kidding about the Crabtree & Evelyn.  Nice, eh?

Step four: Wrap/wind the roving round the soap leaving a bit hanging over the side edges:

I smooth the roving out just a bit with my hand before the next step.  Make as many as you like, it's fun!

Step five: This is the fun part!  Put your heat safe/resistant gloves on. *note each soap is done one at a time

Making sure your water is very hot, submerge the roving wrapped soap into the water.  It is important to hold the soap so at the beginning the roving doesn't loosen up or become unwrapped.  I cradle the soap in my hand. 

Now using both hands agitate the roving on the soap.  This can be done in the water or above the water.  Re submerge the soap as necessary to keep it wet and help in the felting process. (If the roving is not felting quickly try shocking it in ice water then back to the super hot water)

When the roving is firm and appears to be felted around the soap, rinse under cold water.

Step six: Lay your finished soap in a well ventilated area to dry.  A baking rack works well.  I use an old window screen on top of a clothes drying rack.  The soaps should be dry within 24 hours.  If you live in a humid area it may take a bit longer. 

When they are dry they are ready to give!