Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Hand Soap

Between yesterday and today I tried this recipe for homemade hand soap--after a few alterations to the recipe, it ended up working like a dream. I actually used a natural soap from the dollar store, and it smells like lavender <3 
The recipe calls for an 8 ounce bar of soap, 2 tablespoons of glycerin, and a gallon of water. Upon noticing that my bar of soap was only 4.25 ounces, I cut the recipe in half and only used half a gallon of water and a tablespoon of glycerin. But it was waaaay too thick. So I melted it down again and added another half gallon. Still waaaaaay too thick. After a gallon and a half of total water, it finally worked. Here is my finished product:
This batch ended up making nearly a gallon and a half of hand soap for barely over $1. My mom loves the scent and can't wait to put it in every dispenser of our house. I have read that the creator of this recipe also made body wash by using the same recipe. 

I am now the proud owner of a ukulele (thanks to my brother for selling me his for dirt cheap.) Now to learn how to play the thing...
Blessings,
Hannah =)

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Plarn Dish Scrubbies

If you haven't heard of plarn, you've been missing out. Plarn is yarn made out of plastic grocery bags! Some people use it for fashion, but I prefer its more functional aspects. Knit up in garter stitch with two strands, these little plarn dish scrubbies have a rough, ridged surface on both sides, making them perfect for scrubbing tough-to-clean dishes like pots and pans with cooked-on food.

Here is the method I used to make my plarn, and here is another, perhaps slightly easier way that creates the double strand automatically.
I used two different patterns: one was the traditional Grandmother's favorite dishcloth pattern (although much smaller), and for the other, I cast on 15 stitches and worked garter stitch until it was somewhere in the vicinity of square. The latter pattern turned out to be much simpler ;)
These work really well; my mom has already "stolen" two or three (with permission)!
Happy plarning!
Blessings,
Hannah =)