I used to make soap. Lots of soap. Mainly cold process, although I did try hot process once. I didn't like the hot process as it just took too long, and I wasn't in a hurry to have soap ready. I haven't made soap in ages though. However, I found some melt and pour soap supplies on sale and thought I'd play around a bit. The clear base didn't even look all that clear in the block, and it certainly didn't finish clear. I'm not horribly impressed with my first efforts. I have some shea butter base and another base which I'll try next. If nothing else, I have lavender oil to add in them, and the bars of soap can be used in wool storage bins to help keep the moths at bay.
And yes, they do have little toys embedded in them. The round one on the far right has a snail in in it, while the shark and whale ones were obviously too big for the moulds. The turtle was just a tad too tall but the lobster and frog were perfectly sized.
I whipped up some placemats. I used cotton warp and the weft was commercial yarns or home made t-shirt yarn from new t-shirts which were on sale for cheaper than the thrift store. The solid coloured yarns was a new recycled t-shirt yarn which I tried out. It's great fun to work with, fast to weave up, but turns out to be quite expensive if you wanted to do a large project with it.
I made a wool worm holder. Wool worms are the strips of wool used in traditional rug hooking. After cutting the wool into worms, I was stashing them in large zip-lock bag, depending on project. That meant there were a bunch of colours in each bag. As I was hooking away on the rug, I realized that I had no idea how many worms I had left. So I made an organizer to help keep some semblance of order. I quilted up a mat, adding snap tape to the inside. Then I bound the whole thing in bias tape. It works a treat. For this particular project, I would need either a larger one or a second one though as it doesn't hold all the colours and textures that I need. I've also been working on a smaller project, still working out of the bags since the worms are much thinner that these ones. It looks like I'll need to make a couple more holders in the near future. They take up less room than the plastic bags and make it easier to find the particular colours needed at any time. Plus the worms just slide out of the holder with a little tug, which is so much easier than prying them out of a ball of thin strips of wool in the bag.
Currently the loom is empty. I need to make a rug, as per a family member's request but I just finished a run of rugs, and am dithering over my next project. The wheel has cotton on it, and I need to finish up some rug hooked ornaments. Sometimes what I picture in my mind's eye, doesn't actually materialize when I work on it. Thus my embellished with beads and embroidery, hooked ornaments don't actually match my expectations. Now if they'd been felted, it would have been a different story.
We've been running both wood stoves with the unseasonably cold and snowy weather. It seems between loading the stoves and keeping the humidifier running, that sometimes there is little time for anything else. But we're warm and the humidifier runs in the corner with the instruments, so they are looked after. The cats like to cuddle in the cooler weather, so there is that as well. Phil has no issues in coming up to me and demanding that I sit on the couch so he can curl up on my legs. I don't always give in to him, unless it's lunch time or I'm ready for a tea break. He is a darned good snuggler though.
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