Valentine's Yarns

They said it couldn't be done..I spun yarn with chocolate. And Milagros. Whee!



I have all my valentine's yarns listed here.

January Updates

I was pretty busy with Shop Updates in January.

Annetrelac Socks in Eat. Sleep. Knit yarn

I had a few leftover skeins of the fingering weight yarn I dyed in the Eat. Sleep. Knit colorway. They had too many knots to put up for sale with a good conscience. I allow *at most* 2 knots any more than that and it's to the cheap sale page for that yarn.

So I took one skein and started on a sock while I was flying to visit my parents in Birmingham. It's the new Annetrelac Pattern from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2007 special. I thought the ESK yarn varigations would be perfect with the entrelac!



It's weird doing one sock at a time again (I've been a 2 on 2 or 2 on 1 girl for a while now) but I didn't have the guts to try entrelac for the first time while using 2 circulars doing 2 socks at the same time! Eek!



If you're on ravelry you can look the project up here. If you'd like to buy the pattern directly from Interweave Knits you can do so by going here.

You'll find out what I did with one of the other leftover skeins soon :)

Eat Sleep Knit has fingering weight sock yarn!

I shipped a giganto box of superwash fingering weight sock yarn to Erin at Eat Sleep Knit the day before I flew to visit my parents for the holidays. Each color has at least 2 skeins I think and the special eat sleep knit color has 10 skeins available. They're selling pretty quickly too which makes me very happy :)



I'm still catching up from the holiday vacation, have a few custom orders that came in while I was away and of course I have the sport weight sock yarn order to fill for Eat Sleep Knit!

Let's all thank Santa for the lovely electric skeinwinder and new digital camera! They'll make my life a lot easier this year!

Handmade Bath Products: Bath Tea

This one is a total cheat. But if you package it in a cute enough way people will be impressed. Make three and bundle them together in a nice fabric and tie a ribbon at the top.

A note about herbs: I used food grade herbs because you (or your giftee) will be absorbing elements of these products while you're soaking in them so it's best to go ahead and use the same thing you'd put in your body.

Lavender Mint Bath Tea



Small Muslin Bags (you can get them at papermart)
Dried Lavender Buds
Mint Tea (any kind of blend will do really but be careful with caffeinated blends for the overly caffeine sensitive)
A business card sized card to write on
optional: dried baby rosebuds

Blend lavender with tea and optional rosebuds. Don't crush too much. Put in bags. Tie double knots in bag to close.

Seriously that's all. Attach cute card with this written on it: Run warm bath and drop unopened bag in water. Allow to steep like tea. Can be hung to dry and reused two more times.

I actually got pretty hyper taking a bath with one that had a caffeinated mint tea in it. Remember this stuff does come in through your pores so be careful if you're making it for people who are sensitive to caffeine or include a warning on the card.

It's a pretty cute and easy present though isn't it?

Handmade Bath Products: Hand Scrub

The idea for this came from this hand scrub my mother in law was using a few years ago. She just loved it and it was essentially some kind of oil and an exfoliating product. I think it was from beauticontrol which isn't all that expensive but while I was experimenting with making bath and body stuff I decided to try this out.

I did some sleuthing around on the web and decided that sea salt and almond oil would be the best thing for the job. I was working with lemongrass rom the last project so I added some to this one to make it a little different.

Again I used a container I got at Hobby Lobby. This one definitely needs to have a wider mouth at the top so you can reach in there and grab a gob of scrub easily.

Almond Lemongrass Hand Scrub



Three cups Sea Salt, ground
Three cups Almond Oil with vitamin B added (Vitamin B is a good preservative, it can be bottled this way, if not just puncture and empty three Vitamin B caplets into the oil)
1/2 cup Epsom salt, ground
1 Tablespoon Lemongrass, finely ground
a dash of Lemongrass essential oil

Blend the dry ingredients together, shaking them and stirring them a bit. Add Almond oil and stir with a spoon, this will not mix completely but you want the salts soaking in the oil. Add a dash of lemongrass essential oil. Let it sit at room temperature.



As much as you mix it, the oil and salt will separate and that's ok. The key to this is sticking your hand through the oil and grabbing a gob of the salt. The salts will slough the rough top layers of skin on your hands while the oil will leave a moisturizing coat on the new layer of skin. Put it into a jar and keep it by the sink.

Here are some directions you can include on a label for your gift:
Wet hands with warm water, take a small handful of salt from the bottom of the jar. Rub salt on hands and elbows to remove rough skin. Rinse salt off with warm water. Pat dry. Use mild soap to remove some of the oil if desired.

Keep at room temperature.

I'll design some labels for people to download and print out next month.

I'll post the recipes for the Lavender Mint Tea and Seascapes Bath salt by the weekend!

Handmade Bath Products: Milk Bath

Continuing in my posts about cheap gift ideas you can make at home. I made these for the gift exchange portion of the annual ornament party. My thinking behind this is that I've been spending a lot of money on Lush bath bombs and bubble bars so I was trying to come up with maybe making my own versions.

These are all things you can get at your grocery or natural foods grocery store. I bought the glass containers at hobby lobby. They weren't very expensive. You could reuse mason jars or pasta sauce jars but all mine are used for dyeing :) The muslin bags for the bath tea were from my herb supply source and can be bought at places like papermart.

A note about herbs: I used food grade herbs because you (or your giftee) will be absorbing elements of these products while you're soaking in them so it's best to go ahead and use the same thing you'd put in your body.

Along the Garden Path Milk Bath



5 cups powdered milk
3 cups sea salt
3 cups epsom salts
1/4 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons dried lavender, finely ground
1 tablespoon dried lemongrass, finely ground
dash or drop of lavender scented oil

Grind the herbs as finely as possible in an electric grinder. Blend all the dried ingredients in a bowl. Add 1 dash or drop of scented oil and blend. If it doesn't smell strong enough for you (that's doubtful, it will smell strong!) add another dash. Put in a jar and give it a good shake.



Print up a cute label and stick it on.

Include these directions: Scoop 1/2 to 1 cup of mixture under running water. Allow to dissolve then soak and relax. Rinse yourself and the tub off thoroughly then pat dry and enjoy your softly scented skin!

I named it Along the Garden Path because..I dunno it was a pretty name and the bath smelled garden-y. Enjoy! More recipes coming!