Black Tea Soap

Inspired by http://www.cucumbersome.com/time-for-tea-soap

I decided to melt up Marseille soap and throw in rose infused black tea and palmarosa essential oil. Apparantly Marseille soap doesn't melt so this was good practice for next time. I threw in jojoba oil and honey to try and get the mixture to loosen up a bit and I think it had a nice effect, but the soap didn't harden up as much in the end- that, however doesn't matter to me. It still washes nicely and probably won't dry my hands. Below are some pictures of the process.

List of Ingredients: Marseille soap, black tea and I added palmarosa essentiasl oil, jojoba oil and honey. Also a called for but unnecessary ingredient is...

...the Rubbing Alchohol, which I put into a spray bottle

I added Palmarosa Essential Oil to spice up the Rose & Earl grey (Bergamot) black tea scents

I used different containers for the soaps and noticed that popsicle containers don't work, they are the perfect shape but you will not get the soap out of it. Directions that I found online said to spray the soap with Rubbing Alchohol to avoid bubbles. I had no bubbles, but it did smoothe out the surface...

The finished product. My thought was that that black tea would work as an exfoliant... and it does

Warm Chunky Cowl

I had been searching for the perfect grey faux fur short coat for years and years. The vintage/ flea market fairies blessed me this past Wednesday with the perfect super cheap rabbit fur coat. Humans have been keeping warm with fur for millenia, albeit killed "ethically". I am going to override my conscience here and tell myself that I didn't intentionally support the rabbit farming/ rabbit killing industry and that this coat would have ended up as landfill if I hadn't bought it. Working for you? ;)

Anyway, I waited so long for this coat that it needed the perfect scarf. I made the Bandana cowl http://www.purlbee.com/bandana-cowl from The Purl Bee Soho/ Erin. This page also has an editorial on short rows: http://www.purlbee.com/short-row-tutorial/

This pattern is this week's new and popular pattern on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/

I made the following modifications to the pattern:

• I cast on 79 stitches
• I short rowed until there were 11 stitches between wraps
• I made the decrease round (17-45-17) and knit only 1 round between decreases

I liked the pattern so much that I also made a boy's bandana to sell for charity (http://www.danakoshaaid.fi/). I haven't seen it on anyone yet, but I'm thinking someone may be delighted by it.

Crocheted Chunky Earflap Hat ... How-to

I have not been an earflap fan, but when my godson's mom asked me to add earflaps to a hat I knit for him, I realized that for kiddies they are essential and can be cute... even for bigger people. This hat is teenager size for my 13 year old. She loves it... and it can be hard to get a 13 yr. old to wear a hat!

For this chunky, warm hat you will need a bulky yarn or two worsted weight yarns crocheted together and 2 crochet hooks. Check the hook size recommnded on the yarn package or use anywhere between a 6-10 mm hook for the body of the hat and 1 size smaller for the trimming.

There are 2 alternatives: Hat 1 & 2. I'm kind of fond of the teletubby pointy top, Hat 1 does this with a bigger crochet hook and looser hand and Hat 2 with a tighter hand and a smaller hook. Both alternatives catch up to each other at row 5.

Hat 1 (Looser White Hat):

Materials:

- I used Hjertegran NaturUld yarn. Another good bulky yarn available in Finland is Garnstudio Eskimo (see below). Both are Norwegien 100 % wools. I haven't gotten into ordering yarn online, but I'm sure that day will be coming. Until then I frequent local yarn shops in the greater Helsinki, Finland area.
- I used an 8 mm hook for the body as well as a size 7mm hook for the trim.

Instructions:

Start off the crown of the hat with a 3 chain closed ring: Chain 3 (ch3), join with slip stitch (sl st) to form a circle. If this feels too small for you to work with, you can make a 5 ch ring.

Row1: Ch3, this will always count as 1 stitch (st). Double crochet 5 stitches ( 5dc) into the ring. Total sts=6. Join with sl st to the top of the ch3 sts.

Row 2: Ch3. Dc in same st as joining. Dc twice (2dc) into each of the next sts of the round until you get to the initial ch3 st. Total sitches (sts)= 12. Join to ch3 with sl st.

Row 3: Ch3. Dc in same st as joining sts. 2dc in each st of the round. Total sts=24. Join to ch st.

Row 4: Ch3. *2dc in the next st, 1dc in next st*, repeat *2dc, 1dc* to end of round. Total sts=36. Join to ch st.

Row 5: Row 5: Ch3. Dc in same st as joining st. Dc in each of the next 3 sts. Repeat *2dc, 1dc x 3* to last st. 1 dc in last sts. Total sts=45. Join to ch st.Row 6-10: Ch3, dc around, join. Break off yarn, this marks the center of the back of the hat.

Next place 2 safety pins on the 14th stitch from the back center. This leaves 28 sts to be crocheted from temple to temple in the back and 17 sts that won't be crocheted in the front.

You can also modify this by putting safety pins where you want the ear flaps to begin.



Begin row 1

 Row 1: Begin dc row at the safety pin to the left of the back center (left ear flap) by creating ch 2 and continuing dc until you reach the right safety pin. Total sts= 28 (incl ch2). Ch 2. Turn.

Row 2: (Skip first st) Dc 25 sts. Total sts= 26. Ch 2. Turn.

Row 2 = 26 sts

Begin left earflap:





Row 3: (Skip first st) Dc 7 sts. Total sts= 8 (incl ch2). Ch 2. Turn.

Row 4: (Skip first st) Dc5 sts. Total sts= 6 (incl ch2). Ch 2. Turn.

Row 5: (Skip first st) Dc 3 sts. Total sts=4 (incl ch2). Ch 2. Turn.

Row 6: (Skip first st). Dc 1 sts. Pull yarn through and bind off.

Begin right earflap:Row 1: Begin dc row at the last st on other side to the right of the back center (right ear flap) by creating ch 2 and then dc 7 sts. Total sts= 8 (incl ch2). Ch 2. Turn.





Row 2: (Skip first st) dc 5 sts. Total sts= 6 (incl ch2). Ch 2. Turn.

Row 3: (Skip first st) dc 3 sts. Total sts=4 (incl ch2). Ch 2. Turn.

Row 4: (Skip first st) dc 1 sts. Pull yarn through.





Begin single crochet trim stitches here at this st and work all the way around until you reach back to this st and bind off. Take safety pins off as you go.

You can either weave in yarn end of corner of this earflap or crochet them into the trim (do not waeve in or crochet in yarn end at left ear, but use that to begin the crochet tie).





When you get back to right ear flap end crochet, begin the tie by chaining 12 sts (ch12), turn, skip first st and (10) sc to other end and bind off and weave in yarn end with a yarn needle or using crochet hook. Grab the yarn end of the left ear flap and blend it in with the yarn to make the left earflap tie: ch 12, 10 sc, bind off, weave in ends.





 You can make tassles at the ends of the ties if you wish.

I used a credit card sized card to wrap the tassle yarn around





 

Papermache hat stand coming up later



Hat 2 (Tighter Burgundy Hat):Notes:

Materials:
- Garnstudio Drops Eskimo color #10, Burgundy
- 7 mm crochet hook for the body of the hat, 6 mm for the trim

Instructions:
Start off the crown of the hat with a 3 chain closed ring: Chain 3 (ch3), join with slip stitch (sl st) to form a circle. If this feels too small for you to work with, you can make a 5 ch ring.
Row1: Ch2, this will always count as 1 stitch (st). Double crochet 7 stitches ( 7dc) into the ring. Total sts=8. Join with sl st to the top of the ch2 sts.
Row 2: Ch2. Dc in same st as joining st. Dc twice (2dc) into each of the next sts of the round until you get to the initial ch3 st. Total sitches (sts)= 16. Join to ch2 with sl st.
Row 3: Ch3. Dc in same st as joining st. 2dc in next st. 1 dc in the next st. Repeat *2dc, 2dc, 1dc*to the last st of the row, 2dc in last st. Total sts=27. Join to ch st.
Row 4: Ch3. Dc in same st as joining st. 1 dc in each of the next 2 sts. Repeat *2dc, 1dc x 2* to end of the row. Total sts=36. Join to ch st.

Next follow directions as above
Row 5: Ch3. Dc in same st as joining st. Dc in each of the next 3 sts. Repeat *2dc, 1dc x 3* to last st. 1 dc in last sts. Total sts=45. Join to ch st.
Row 6-10: Ch3, dc around, join. Break off yarn, this marks the center of the back of the hat.
And so on, see above...

Notes:

- To get a bigger hat change Row 5 to:  Ch 3. Dc in same st as joining. *1 dc in each of the next 2 sts, 2 dc in next sts*, repeat ** to end of round. Increase amount of rows after that.

- For a toddler hat, skip row 4. Decrease amount of rows after that.

- My yarn was nice and bulky chunky so the size of  first ch3 were perfect as far as the structure of the hat was concerned. Depending on your yarn, you might want to ch2 if the ch3 seems too large for your hat structure.

Microbial Art

This is something I just now remembered I could get back into. How do we forget things that we have once found fascinating and inspiring, that we used to be into? Life just brings so many new fascinating and inspiring things. I was a microbiology major with a minor in art at California State University of Sacramento in the early 90's and I used to dabble in Microbial Art. The following is copied straight from the blog  http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/10/van_gogh_picasso_pollock_and_s.html as I think it's a fantastic representation of Microbial Art.

"Van Gogh, Picasso, Pollock, and ... Serratia marcescens? - October 20, 2011"

Although they can't pick up a brush, bacteria have created their own painting for the first time.
Simon Park, a microbiologist at the University of Surrey, notes that many people – including Alexander Fleming – have painted with bacteria. But now, in collaboration with watercolourist Sarah Roberts, he says the bacteria themselves have been turned into painters.



“We prepared a standard agar plate, about 20cm by 20cm,” he explains. “Sarah chose some pigments – some of which she thought might be toxic, some of which she thought the bacteria might like and painted circles on the agar. Then we inoculated the agar with a red pigmented bacteria and incubated it overnight.”
The result was the image you see above. As the Serratia marcescens bacteria (the red colour) grew, they moved over the surface and “picked up the paint [the other colours] and moved it around according to their own ‘desires or whims’”, says Park.
The result makes visible some of the results of the bacteria’s movement, swarming, communication and even coordinated behaviour.
Park says he hopes this – and other outreach work – will help the public understanding of bacteria.
“I sit in a laboratory and work with what I think are some of the most wonderful things out there, but the public all they ever see of bacteria are the horror stories when people are selling bleach. They very rarely look at the good side,” he told Nature.
Image: Park / Roberts / S. marcescens

More of Microbiologist Dr. Simon Park's and other's Microbial Art at http://www.microbialart.com/galleries/simon-park/

Halloween meringue thigh bones

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. In fact I scare some of my friends with how far I go with Halloween parties (no pun intended). This year I decided to make bone meringues. Many recipes call for cream of tartar. This is not readily available in Finland, so I used this sugar company recipe:

Makes approxiamately 9-18 meringues

Ingredients
3 egg whites (room temperature)
½ tsp lemon juice
1 ¼ dl powdered sugar
1 dl granulated sugar
1 tsp potato powder

Instructions

In a metal or glass bowl, whip together egg whites, lemon juice and the sugars until they are hard, i.e. they leave a trace. Add the potato powder and whip together.

Put the ingredients into a ziplock bag and close. Cut out a corner out of one of the edges and press out the form of a bone.

Cooking:

1. 1. Cook for 1 hr. in a 100⁰C degree oven.

2. 2. Cook for another hour in a 50⁰C degree oven.

3. 3. Turn the oven off and crack the oven door a bit. Let the meringues dry over night in the oven (I didn’t do this and they turned out fine).

Hint:  You can smooth the ”dough” using the tip of a knife.

  

Colorful adult fun, friendship necklaces

Remember friendship bracelets in grade school and junior high? Girls, this takes it to the NEXT level. Possibly also because Finland's pricing on embroidery floss is insanity, but this is why crafters work. Bring on the color.

Cheerful pom-pom garland

This is soooo inspiring, I have to make one! Good thing I have both a craft club & wine meet-up and my daughter's birthday coming up. Even paid way too much for a Novita plastic pom-pom device, which broke on the first use. The clasps that hold it together came off, one permanently. Of course I no longer have the receipt, so I'm stuck with the broke one, for better for worse.. But lose faith not. I am still determined to make this cool garland.

Started winding the yarn

Got it attached before it fell on the floor and broke. I was surprised by how much yarn it ate up, I have to dig deep into my stash. If you're coming to the craft club bring your own yarn stash.

TG it stayed together and I got the yarn tied around it

Yeesh!! 25 or more (if I can't stop) to go... :)

I love coming home and seeing this above our apartment door