Not a traditional WIP Wednesday

My list of WIPs has not changed significantly since my last post, so instead I give you soap!

Fishermen's Soap is the latest from Turtle Cove Soaps. It is made with Anise Seed Essential Oil, which, besides smelling fabulously like black licorice, has the curious property of removing all traces of human scent. I designed this soap for fishermen, hunters, and anyone who enjoys nature. My husband and his fishing buddies have given it their seal of approval!

Speaking of The Hairy One, did you notice the cute turtle print on each soap? That is from one of the soap stamps he gave me for Christmas. It is perfect!

And, since this is a knitting blog, check out this shot from the Bass Pro Shop in Macon, Georgia:

Obviously if your husband fishes or hunts, you pine at home with random balls of yarn.

Who's got the Mojo?

Today is going to make or break my holiday mojo. We start the day with the Reindeer Run, a 5K run/walk held every year in our hometown. Bubba and Bug will be running about half the run this year; I'll follow them on my jingle-bike.

Next, we rush off to Breakfast with Santa. The jolly old elf makes a special appearance every year to have pancakes with the kids and raise money for needy families. Last year Bug was in tears from the excitement; hopefully this year is not so traumatic.

So, you'd think that would be enough, no? No. We still have the library book sale and the holiday parade.... I haven't even mentioned the holiday knitting that must be finished this weekend! Sheesh.

I will definitely need my favorite invention of the twentieth century.

I was tempted to list myself as my favorite invention, but I resisted! This is the one thing that I will immediately replace should it break.

If you look at my sidebar, you will see I have finally launched my Etsy store, Turtle Cove Soaps, handmade at the House at Two Palms. Take a minute to visit the store and send me a convo to tell me what you think. I have listed the best of my goats milk and specialty soaps, and of course I'll be adding more as the pass my exacting standards. Right now, I am working hard in my secret laboratory, developing a knitter's salve. It will soon be for sale in my Etsy store and my LYS All Strung Out.

Not for Ed or the Faint of Heart

Sorry, Ed; you may not want to see this.


We've decided Bubba is part shark.

Sudsy Interlude

I've been playing with colors in my soap. Both goats milk and olive oil soaps are notoriously hard to color, and my soaps are heavy in both. This is what I've got so far:

Plumberry

The Plumberry was supposed to be a soft shade of pink swirled into the soap. Instead I've got a blush of pink on top of the soap. Oh well, it's still pretty!

Forest's Edge

This is a mix of sweetgrass and juniper scents. It is a soothing blend of sweet and earthy, and currently one of my favorites. Unfortunately, the soap moved too fast for swirling, so I layered the colors. The end result inspired the name Forest's Edge.

I'm antsy to keep going on this learning curve, but I had to order more supplies. They should arrive on Wednesday. Until then, I guess I'll knit!

When soap goes rogue

Soap making is an art, but it's also a science. At its most basic, soap is made through the chemical reaction between a base and an acid. The fatty acids found in oils create specific properties in the soap, and each fatty acid reacts differently with the sodium hydroxide. The responsible soap maker carefully calculates these reactions and measures the ingredients as accurately as possible. In a perfect environment this would create the perfect soap every time.

However, there are three main variables that can interfere with this chemical reaction. They are heat, humidity, and the homogeneous blending of the ingredients. I will talk about heat and humidity in other articles. It is the importance of proper blending that is occupying my mind at the moment.

In properly blended soap, the sodium hydroxide reacts in its entirety with the fatty acids in the oils. No sodium hydroxide will remain in the final product. Most modern soap makers use stick blenders to achieve this even mixing of the soap ingredients.

Recently, I made a goats milk and oatmeal soap. As it was curing, it continuously wept oil. This is not a good sign! When I took it out of the mold, this is what I saw.

Click to enlarge

In this soap, the ingredients were not mixed homogeneously, allowing pockets of sodium hydroxide to form. Note the uneven colors and the vertical lines between layers. Those vertical lines are sodium hydroxide crystals, leftover due to uneven mixing.

This soap has gone into the trash, and my stick blender has been replaced. I shouldn't see this again for a very long time (knock on wood). However, this experience underscores the importance of testing the pH of every batch of soap. Soap, whether handmade or commercial, should have a pH of 9-10. Any higher, and the soap will be too harsh on the skin; any lower, and the soap won't be able to clean.

If the soap fairy should visit you with a bad batch of soap, remember each one is a learning experience. Put your gloves back on and try again!

Happy soaping!

Calling All Brave Souls

Although inspired by all the knitty blogs out there, I originally started this blog to talk about soap making. It's been three months, and I only have one post about soap..... Silly girl.

So, tra-la! *furls arms like a magician's assistant* Beautiful handmade soap!

This is Naked Goat Soap, a goat’s milk soap with no added fragrances. It naturally has a soft, sweet, milky scent. The goat's milk combined with nourishing olive and rice bran oils and luxurious mango butter gently cleanse without stripping your skin's natural oils.
And the all-time favorite (so far): Almond Biscotti Kitchen Soap. This is a gentle yet hardworking soap to combat those persistent kitchen smells: onions? garlic? This soap knocks them all down without drying your skin! Cocoa butter soothes while fresh coffee grinds scrub and whisk away stinkiness. And the scent? Divine chocolate amaretto.... Mmmm yummy!*

For those of you who've made it all the way here, you're probably wondering "What's the deal with the title?" Well, I need soap-testing volunteers. My friends and family have happily tested my soaps for years, but they can only wash so many times a day! Plus, I'm not sure they are as brutally honest as they should be.

So, if you are feeling brave and love fancy schmancy soaps, send an email to twopalms @ cfl dot rr dot com (or click on the sidebar). I will randomly send you samples of my latest creations with a detailed ingredient list and a tentative name of the soap. All you have to do in return is give me an honest critique.

Why the sudden largesse? I will be opening an Etsy store soon, and I want to hook as many customers as possible before hand. Okay, not really, but I would like to take the next step of soap for profit (yeah, right - no one makes money on soap). Before I invest in the local round of spring craft fairs, I'd like to know which soaps are popular across the largest spectrum of people.

You know you're curious!



*Do not eat soap! No matter how good it smells. Really. It won’t taste good at all.

If at first you don't succeed, make soap

I spent all day yesterday washing, drying, and carding wool.














See the dirty wool? Ewwwww.

First wash.

Hot hot water with a little bit of detergent. I thought about doing this in the washing machine, but I don't know what the lanolin and fuzz would do to my machine. Besides, then you wouldn't see my dead grass! (It's been a hot, dry summer.)

They say the wash water is good for the plants. I figure at this point the lawn can't get worse!

Last wash (rinsed with white vinegar).



























Drying on the rack (note to self, next time use a towel under the wool). I had drops and blops of wool falling to the ground. My dog thought it was raining puppy toys.

The merino carded beautifully, but I couldn't make a rolag. I was sooo frustrated. I spent all day with this wool and I was ruining it!

So this morning I decided to do something I knew I would succeed with. Soap! I'm using a very simple recipe:

30% canola
29% olive
25% coconut
8% shea butter
8% castor
water:lye 1:2.75
5% superfat

The recipe seems a little heavy on castor (I usually stick to 4-5%), but the extra conditioning should be nice. I made two small batches so I could play with my new soap colors (that also dye wool!).

The recipe soaped like a dream. I mixed the oils/lye water at 110* and stick blended to light trace. Trace was nice and quick, but not so fast that I felt rushed. It was too fast to take a pic though.

I divided the first batch into threes and tinted two with aqua and melon red. I drizzled each color into the mold and swirled with a bamboo skewer. The fragrance is an Axe Touch type (otherwise known as manly man perfume)

I split the next batch into two parts and tinted with emerald green and brilliant blue (which turns orange then lavender in CP soap). The scent is Amber Romance and it is dreamy..... Too bad it looks like split pea soup mixed with tomatoes. The colors should settle after gel. Did you notice the first batch is almost gelled in this photo? I force gel with a heating pad so I know it gells through to the corners.

The soaps should be through the gel phase late tonight and ready to be unmolded and cut tomorrow.

Flush with the success of making soap (even if it's weird looking soap, it'll wash stinky bodies!) I got on line to figure out what I'm doing wrong with the wool. There it was, plain as day, on the first site I looked at. I was trying to make a long fiber rolag. I blame it on the bunnies. My reading has been focused on angora fibers which are very different than wool fibers. I'm going to try again tonight - wish me luck.

One last pic: the Hairy One caught dinner! See how creeped out the Bug is?