Life Experiences

I have plenty of excuses for not blogging in such a long time. But odds are if you're reading this, you know me personally. Therefore, you know those reasons.

Life in Flux!

Anywho, after all these delightful oils have been sitting around/moving with me for months, I decided to make some soap. How is this KGC related? Oh, I'll get to that eventually.

Here are my ingredients:

Organic all vegetable shortening
Organic unfiltered extra virgin olive oil
Organic (Food-grade) Cocoa butter
Unrefined Organic virgin coconut oil
Organic fragrance oil (white tea & ginger)
Sodium Hydroxide (Lye)
Water

First I started by mixing the Lye and water.... very carefully. It became quite hot (and stinky) so I put it outside.

Then I melted down all of my oils to around 100 degrees. Didn't take long at all!

I mixed in the lye and stirred. There was a bit of a chemical reaction at first... you could see some soap-like suds forming - really cool.

Then I poured it into my "mold," consisting of an old cardboard box and shower curtain. This mixture stayed hot for a very long time. It eventually cooled off and solidified about 24 hours later, but still needed more time to cure.

I broke off a little chuck to see if I did everything right!

A day later I took the whole mass out and cut it up. It was a little flakier than I had hoped, I probably should have stirred it longer... but not bad for my first attempt. It definitely leaves my skin ultra soft. I'm about to take some into the shower to make sure it's safe to share... I'd rather not have to pay for skin grafts!

 The flakiness doesn't really matter... I'll be covering these babies with some local hand-spun (and naturally anti-fungal) wool.... once I get it! Thinking about taking a trip to Madison Wool to support the local shop, new friend, and fellow yarn-enthusiast!

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Here's a really awesome link brought to my attention by friend and local artist, Barbara Hocker.

Here’s something wacky and awesome that I’ve never seen done before. Minneapolis yarn bombing artist HOTTEA (previously) strikes again with this amalgam of street art techniques including a canvas made of yarn, two stencils, and spray paint to create this holy trinity of non-destructive street art. How long does it take for one man to unravel 12 skeins of yarn? Longer than it takes for the sun to rise and set. Jump to around 00:45 in the video to watch the time-lapse. That guy is a yarn wrapping animal!

WILDLIFE from Hot Tea on Vimeo.

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We still meet every Tuesday, and open to absolutely everyone. If you're interested in hanging out with us, shoot an email to knittygrittycommittee@gmail.com