Kiss My Knits!

Okay, everybody who’s saying “make me something!” It’s time to put your money where your mouth is.

I need volunteers to test something. I’m making – and this is not a joke – felted soap. No, I am not insane.

What’s felted soap? Well, it’s a little bar of soap covered in wool roving which is then felted around the bar, thereby encasing the soap in a little scrubber. I’ve made some for me and some for my mom and I just love it. The covering makes the soap suds up really well, and it foams through the casing like shower gel on one of those plastic scrubber things. But it’s got enough nap to it that it’s also exfoliates some. Nifty!

Right now I’m experimenting with different kinds of soap, different designs, and different thicknesses of covering. Here’s an example of what it looks like before (covered but not yet felted) and after (felted and drying.)

What I need is a few volunteers to let me mail this stuff to them and have them try it out. Now, you know I’m a GM, so I’m used to taking blunt criticism from my peers. So you’d need to let me know what you like and don’t like about it. Too rough? Design coming off? Soap coming out? Feels great? Suckiest soap ever? You get the idea. If I can get the kinks worked out, it’ll be one more thing to put on the table at Simucon.

If you’re interested, let me know. Also let me know if you’d prefer rose, jasmine, sandalwood, or Emerald Mist. I might do some regular old Ivory, just to see, so you can specify that too. 🙂 I’ll mail you a sample. Try not to let it sit in water – we don’t want it melting too fast, or God forbid, mildewing!

Thanks!

You may remember the ill-fated rainbow fish hat which looked like a particularly colorful yarmulke.

I decided to give it another go, but with a different pattern. So here’s the result. I’d like to try this hat again, but on 11s instead of 13s to make it a bit snugger. Plus the end that got woven in on the rim (you can see it over my right ear) looks sloppy. I wove it in on the inside, but of course it’s stockinette stitch so it rolls up… which means it’s really on the outside. Oops!

Down side: The stash didn’t actually get reduced, because I have plenty of both yarns left over, just in slightly smaller quantities. I need to use stuff up!