My latest batch of handmade soaps include many natural ingredients.

The first bar is my favorite, made with Sea Buckthorn oil. The oil of this berry is full of vitamins A (derived from -carotene), vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and vitamin E (-tocopherol). So a perfect ingredient for soaps and skin creams.

There’s also turmeric powder in this batch too. Turmeric is commonly used for natural skincare in parts of Asia. Many of it’s benefits include getting rid of blemishes to dark spots.

Turmeric root is anti-bacterial and has been used in herbal medicine to treat skin infections and burns.

When using turmeric powder you have to be careful not to stain your clothing. As it’s very yellow and won’t come off easily. So adding some of the turmeric root powder to this batch of soap is a better idea.

For a natural scent, I’ve added grapefruit essential oil. It has a light and uplifting scent to it.

The soaps are still curing in my crate. So it won’t be ready to use for another three to four weeks. I put the soap crate on the top shelf of the coat closet. Allowing it to cure in peace. It makes the closet smell very nice too.

Read the rest of this entry »

My cousin had a new baby boy and I thought booties would make a nice gift. It’s also good for me to take a break from knitting and practice my crochet.

The yarn is wool blend and the brown color makes for a perfect pair of winter boots. Next time I could add white trimming on top.

The free pattern was from Red Heart Yarn can be found here. Other free patterns available at Lion Brand Yarn too.

Since the crocheting was going so well, I decided to try the “popcorn stitch”. So I made this with some extra red acrylic and brown cotton yarns. At first I was thinking of making “strawberry covered cupcake” but then thought it looks more like a basket of red roses! Guess it’s all in how you see it.

How to make the Popcorn stitch: Chain even # of stitches loosely. Popcorn: 5 dc in next st, drop loop from hook, insert hook in first dc of 5-dc group, draw dropped loop thru st, ch 1 tightly to secure.

For a panel of popcorn stitches do the following:

Foundation row: 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook. 1 sc in each ch across row, turn.

Row 1: Ch 3 (count as first dc); *skip first st, *popcorn in next st, 1 dc next st, rep from * across, turn.

Row 2: Ch 1, 2 sc in first dc; *skip next popcorn, 2 sc in next dc, rep from * across, ending with 1 sc top of turning ch, turn.

Rep Rows 1 and 2 for pattern.

Bananas aren’t just for eating as they also give us fiber for making yarn. Well not exactly from the fruit, but from the stalks and shoots of the plant. According to Textile Exchange, banana plants have long been a good source for high quality textiles around the world. With Japan and Nepal leading the pack.

The fibers come from the banana stalks and shoots. As the outermost fiber are more coarse, it’s used for making ropes and mats. But the inner part is much softer and used to make fabric.

In Japan, some traditional dresses like kimono are made with banana fiber. It’s lightweight, comfortable, and perfect for summer time clothing. With the fabric being similar to rayon and bamboo.

In Nepal they process their banana fiber to become as soft as silk. They use the outer aged and decaying bark of the banana plant. An eco-friendly way of using all parts of the plant. The pulps are extracted and processed then hand spun and hand dyed into colorful yarn.

Photo from .  A skein of banana silk yarn in blue.   I can imagine a knitted soft and silky scarf with this yarn.

200 grams at $13.85 from Yarn Market.  More info:

“Frabjous” means joyful, excellent, fabulous, and these are definitely the terrific feelings you’ll get when you create with heavy-worsted “Banana Silk.” Handspun from the readily renewable banana stalk, “Banana Silk” is similar to rayon in terms of softness & sheen but keep in mind that some of the profits go to support fair trade women’s cooperatives in Nepal. “Banana Silk” is spectacular knitted & crocheted into hats, shawls, scarves, bags & more.”

Next post… fiber yarn from Pineapple. Not the fruit either, but the pineapple tops. Once processed, the material is similar to linen, however it is softer and more lustrous. Stay tuned!

Reference notes: Textile Exchange

I’ve been busy knitting up hats for this holiday gift giving season. Plus a couple of scarves and cowls.

Some of the hats I’ve knitted with wool or wool blend yarns. I got the flower design chart from a Vogue knitting book on loan from the library. I forgot to make a copy before returning the book.

The other hat was decorated with bobbles. Bobbles make hat look like fun. A simple way to make bobbles is to watch this tutorial.

More fun bobbles in this little case I knitted for my sunglass. Using bamboo blend yarn. Even in winter the sun can be bright out in California.

Read the rest of this entry »

I started to pick up my crochet hook again. And made some Granny Square.

This is the traditional method. Very easy to crochet once you get the pattern going.

Between this and knitting, I’ll have to go with knitting. Knitting I can almost do without having to look down all the time. Not so with crochet and it’s also hard on my fingers.

This is my instructions for making a Traditional Granny Square:

Chain 4, slip stitch into first chain to form circle.

When the circle is made, chain 3 and dc (double crochet or call treble in England) 3 times into the circle. 3 dc forms a shell pattern. Actually dc 2 times because the chain 3 counts as part of the shell pattern.

After you’re done with 3 dc, chain 1 (or chain 2 or 3 depends on what length you want) and repeat. Repeat 4 times to form the square. 4 sets of 3 dc shells to form a square.

Instructions can only go so far - just watch the Youtube crochet tutorials instead. And there are many of them. Enjoy!

This version has more definition around the edges and it’s much more sturdy. But it’s more complicated to crochet.

On a side note, my mom thinks a crochet blanket would be nice. But I always feel sad for those blankets. Because it seems that there are so many Granny blankets at the thrift store. Just sitting there waiting for a new home. I could never get myself to own it since it always felt like it was made for someone else. That’s just me but I’ll still be happy to see someone else give it a new life.

I love all yarns, but for now I m really liking plant based yarns. Especially in the summer time. The plant based yarns feel soft, silky, and smooth. And the final product is something very cooling to the skin, especially with the bamboo based yarn.

In the next few weeks I’ll be posting more about other plant based yarn. This week I will begin with hemp yarn.

Photo from Aurora Silk. This is 100% hemp fiber. “All hand wild crafted! Pulled plants from the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains that ring the valley of Nepal. Hand processed in small villages.”

Here are just some of the benefits of hemp fiber:

- very absorbent, cool and comfortable to wear.
- resistant to mildew and antimicrobial.
- blocks UV rays better than any other fiber.
- retain it’s shape thru many wearings.
- can be machine wash and dry.
- doesn’t pill
- dyes well but natural color is creamy white, brown, gray, black or green.
- easy to grow, productive crop, requires to pesticides.

Hemp yarn will feel coarse before being knitted, but it will soften up after washing and wearing.

At yarn.com (WEBS) they group the following fibers together: linen, hemp, and flax yarn. They sound kind of stiff to me, but mix it with some cotton I’m sure it’s very comfortable.

Other plant based yarn include soy and bamboo. I’m currently ordering some yarns made with bamboo and silk. So I’ll give a review of that later.

Plant based yarns are also eco-friendly as raising plants takes up less space than farming for production of animal fibers. And for those that are allergic to wool, these plant based yarns are great. Never itchy!

Note:  This fiber is made from hemp that is closely related to the one the government considers an illegal drug.  But this plant does not get anyone high - except for maybe a calming effect knitting can do to you.  Hemp has many uses and truly a gift from Mother Nature.  It would be great if farmers in the U.S. are allowed to grow this plant for it’s many industrial uses too.

I’ve heard lots of neat things about the Ott Light and wanted to get one for my crafting & reading table. I found the Telescoping Lamp on sale $24.99 at Joannes, regular price online $39.99.

What got me to pick this lamp was the “360 degree rotation at the base and the flexible shade joint allow you to position the light exactly where you need it.” Instead I found it to be a bit awkward to use.

The company advertises their product as “OttLite® 508 Illuminationâ„¢ to make reading and seeing easier and more comfortable. The unique low heat, low glare illumination helps reduce eyestrain.”

The output of a 15 watt OttLite bulb is roughly equivalent to that of a 60 watt incandescent bulb.

So it was way too bright and almost blinding for me. I guess my eyes are still in great condition as I don’t usually get eyestrain and regular lighting suits me fine.

The replacement bulb was also too expensive, prices starting at $12.95 and can go up to $23.99.

I plan to keep it in one area but sometimes I need to move it to another location. But the base made it difficult because it was so heavy. I can see it would make it substantial and not fall over, but still I didn’t like all that extra weight.

So that’s just my review. Others may find it more or less useful than myself. In the meantime I will just stick to a regular lamp with full spectrum light bulbs.

Photo from Ott Lite.

I’ve been wanting to have my own serger for years now. But didn’t want to buy a brand new one since I don’t sew enough (to make it worth it).

Then I saw this used serger for $39 and was more than happy to buy it. It wasn’t perfect and missing the thread guide - as the thread guide holder was broken.

We improvised by using an old radio antenna because it can be pulled up and down. And for the thread guide holder, we used little open screws used for hanging pictures.

After cleaning up the lint and fixing the tension, it was ready for a test drive. Everything works fine and I am now a proud owner of a Singer UltraLock 14 U34!

This is the first summer tank top I made with my “new to me” serger.

I just drafted the pattern by hand and was surprised how nice the neck line turned out. The fabric is from Joanne’s Lisette brand, on sale for $5 per yard.

Sergers are great to have if you do lots of sewing and want the seams to sew up tight and last a long time.

And a good used serger is also good as it saves you money and also gets to be recycled by a new owner.

Note: Threading the serger can be tricky. Tweezers are a necessity!

More photos on my Singer’s threading chart and the mechanics,

This is another great photo from another website with names to serger parts.

Ever since I started knitting, I found out there is a huge world of knitters. And different types of yarns have never looked so intriguing to me.

But I never thought I would come across something like this… it’s knitted chairs! Yuvinia Yuhadi has a blog dedicated to the knitted chair. What is so amusing and artistic is that you can turn a simple plastic lawn chair into something really nice.

Photos by Andreas Kokkino

The idea started as Yuhadi’s final-year project for her degree in product design at Middlesex University in London. It has now grown into a site with free pdf of the knitting patterns.

Maybe when I’m feeling ambitious and feel myself an accomplished knitter will I attempt the knitted chair and have it added to her photo gallery.

Meanwhile Melanie Porter has her own collection of knitted chair without the white plastic chair part.

Melanie undertakes the entire process herself and everything, from the restoration and upholstering to the individual, crocheted buttons, is done by hand.

Some of my favorites are pictured below:

Chair by Melanie Porter. This light green one is the “Olivia”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another favorite gift I’ve received recently is from Nye Noona. It’s a tote bag made by her talented sister Bee.  The material used is recycled Brazilian truck tarp.

This is the first time I’ve heard about this material.  And it’s always great to see things being recycled and reused!

It feels like a really sturdy material that would hold up well with books or heavy groceries. But I’m trying to keep it clean for now and using it indoors. Plus it’s perfect for my knitting supplies.

I was told that the tarp fabric is washed and cleaned and then embroidered with beautiful floral designs.

There are also patches and frays in the fabric which work well as it gives it a unique touch. As the frays tell of prior history of having traveled all around Brazil.

I really like that the fabric holds up well without needing any interfacing. Special thanks to Bee for making such a pretty bag. It’s a truly one of a kind tote bag.

The only retailer that makes items from truck tarp is The Real Deal. They make rugged hats and bags.  This is their laptop bag and hat combo. For more info visit them here.

Photo from The Real Deal Brazil.