Soap...

I took them out of their wrap today and they look good. Now they'll sit on a shelf for 3 weeks to cure. Basically I think that means the excess water evaporates out of them.

The results of the different size molds: the small size was very hard to unmold. It was a bit of a struggle on a few of them. The medium size was pretty easy to unmold this being partly due to their shallow depth. The large size was easy to unmold. I did put them in the freezer for half an hour before unmolding.

I'm really happy about this and can't wait to make more. Enfleurage, I'm coming to visit!

Tour de Fleece 2011...

I'll be posting daily pictures of my Tour de Fleece spinning. Yesterday (day 1) was the Shetland. Today I spun more of the Merino that I had set aside a while back. Very thin single will be 2 plyed. Tomorrow (if the weather is nice) I plan to dye the wool-silk blend which will be my main TDF project.

This merino is very beautiful. Spinning it so thin comes with a few challenges... it's almost inevitable that I'll drop the spindle once or twice in a session. Sometimes the fibers slide past each other so fast... swoosh... and it's on the floor! :)

The merino:

The wool/silk batts that will be my main TDF projects before dying:

Soap...

Ooooh.... I'm excited! Really excited!

Today is the day that I set out to whip up a batch of soap. My very first batch. It's a holiday weekend so I'm not feeling rushed at all, and the weather was lovely. A tad humid but not too bad. I experienced a little anxiety to start--as usual when tackling something new sans an instructor being present. Instructions like 'stir until trace' isn't quite as precise as, say, 'heat to 98 degrees'. The latter doesn't faze me a bit, the former? Eh... apprehension that comes with the unknown. Gotta go with it though, what's the worst that could happen? A failed batch of soap? But I wanted it to come out well!

I am happy to report that everything seems to be going well so far. I won't know for sure until Monday afternoon--theoretically, but I'm 95% confident at the moment. I managed to recognize trace when it happened and I had plenty of time to be on the lookout for it. It took somewhere between 40 minutes to an hour of stirring to reach it. (I don't know for sure because I left my watch at my cello teacher's place last Tuesday!) It most certainly was trace and it was very exciting when I realized that it would happen!

After pouring the soap into molds they have to be wrapped in a towel and left alone for 48 hours after which time they can be unmolded and left out to cure for 3 weeks. However :) I just went out to the back yard to ply the Shetland I spun this afternoon and could not resist peeking at the soap. Happy, happy! It is firm. I don't really think I need to wait until Monday (but I will) because this was a small batch--only 1 pound. The instructions said the small amount could be poured directly into final molds and because of that I think it is setting up quicker.

From what I've read it seems molds are usually used for milled soap, but since the instructions mentioned pouring directly into molds I was happy to oblige. I bought 3 molds--a large, medium and small. I want to see how the soap will come out in the three different sizes. The large has a fleur-de-lis decoartion, the medium a floral, and the small are quaint little ribbed mounds.

So what is trace? It's when the soap starts to leave a raised trail when you lift the spoon out of it and dribble a bit across the surface.

The soap I decided to make is oatmeal and I added a little bit of cinnamon essential oil. Here's is everything at the start. Going clockwise from the bottom left: my digital scale, a pyrex cup to mix the lye & water, palm oil, coconut oil, lye, .25 cup of oatmeal blended with 2 oz. olive oil, the big red bag that carried everything to the backyard, coffee (not for the soap), red pan to melt the oils in, plastic gloves for handling lye, pan to measure the lye in, paper towel, stirring spatula and spoon, face mask for when lye is mixed with the water:

When the lye is mixed with the water it heats way up and needs to be set aside to cool down to around 100-110 degrees. In the meantime the oil and fat has to be melted and heated to around the same temperature. I had no idea oils heated up so fast and I ended up having to stick the pan in the quick freeze for about 10 minutes to get it cooled down. When the temps are right the lye/water is added to the oils and is then stirred "until trace". This is what it looked like right after the 2 mixes were combined:

And this is what it looked like at trace just before I added the oatmeal and olive oil. It is much lighter in color and much thicker:

And here is the soap poured into the molds just before I covered them up with another towel:

And the Shetland spun this afternoon and plyed this evening? ... :)

Cello... a video progress report

Well then! Time for a little humble pie. My teacher recorded one of the exercises I learned last week. He will be doing this periodically, mostly for my benefit so I can look back and (hopefully) see my progress.

This is me after 8 months of lessons. Yes, I think it's bearable to listen to. Warning: There are a few notes to winch on. :)

I was a little uptight about being recorded but I think I'll settle into that quickly enough. There's one whole line that I bowed backwards! You'll notice my teacher says "down bow" at one point and you'll see my smile as I had already realized I was bowing in the wrong direction. Ha!

So, progress is being made. I don't yet feel that I have full use and control of my bow but it'll come I'm sure. My teacher makes it look so easy...

Cello after 8 months of lessons (Youtube)

The latest spin... spindle spun, n-ply

Just finished a bunch of Spinner's Hill top that I purchased at last fall's NY Sheep and Wool festival. It's a very nice preparation and I look forward to obtaining some more. I spindle spun this lot and did ply-on-the-fly which I love for achieving runs of color from these gorgeously colored tops.

I was filling up pretty well on my last spindle but still had about 2.5 feet of top to spin up and ply. I really didn't want to break off and end up with a very small skein left over but it was getting pretty difficult to spin with such a heavy load. So I broke off leaving a tail of 3" or so and spun the rest as an un-plied single on a separate spindle. When I got to the end of that bit I grafted the two spindles together (the twist is all going in the same direction) and finished by n-plying the single from the 2nd spindle onto the 1st and ended with a nice big hank!

Here's the 1st spindle with probably the biggest cop I've ever had on it:

And here are the finished hanks from the lot. I do love the colors:

City life... A Sunday afternoon walk in the neighborhood...

I took a walk down to the waterfront this afternoon. It was a lovely day for it. Wore my straw hat, the one that goes well enough with my 2-day old stubble to elicit comments on my sex appeal! I kid you not. It happened yesterday in Petland Discounts. Something about me being the next big sex symbol. Ha! Made my day I can tell you that! :)

It was sunny and warm this afternoon and the 20-somethings were out in abundance. Lot's of eye candy for the trip.

The city is (finally) doing some wonderful things with the waterfront. My understanding of the plans is that the whole Brooklyn waterfont will eventually be parkland. This is a good thing. The open breeze that wafts across the East River salves the soul like no ordinary park breeze. It's trip across the expanse from Manhattan gives it a chance to ripen into what feels like bursts of billowy down across the face. Pregnant with fresh air.

There's lot's to see down by North 5-6-7-8-9th Streets by the water so I took my camera along and will leave this little photo journal of my afternoon walk. (I didn't buy anything at the flea market, but 2 weeks ago I bought a lovely old hand crafted doily.)

A few recommendations.... continued

I have had a jar of lye sitting in the closet for the past several months. It is waiting for me to make soap of it.... and the time has come. I've just ordered a few molds, picked out the recipe I want to use (oatmeal soap) and picked up some cinnamon bark essential oil at a store in the west village... so hopefully I'll end up with oatmeal cinnamon soap. Fingers crossed...

Enfleurage
321 Bleecker Street

If you're in NY, most certainly stop by. If not, definitely visit their website. They have a most amazing selection of essential oils (check the products page) from all over the world. Some of it is pricey: $130 for 2ml of Agarwood Hindi Super, but most are within reach. I purchased 10ml of cinnamon bark (from Vietnam) for around $28.

The store is not large but there is a whole rack of oils that can be sampled.