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    crafty

    the things you don’t think about:

    By: amber
    21-10-2011
    crafty, soap

    Tags: , , , , ,

    well, my title is probably misleading because i’m sure that there are people out there who do fully research and consider every single little thing before they begin a project. i’m not the best at every little thing, so when i thought i was looking at the grand scheme of things in regards to adding soap to my crafty repertoire, i was really overlooking:

    • recipes. it just didn’t occur to me to run all of them through soapcalc on a lazy day so i would have all of them ready to go when i needed them. why did i think of this? because this morning, after having received all of my crap yesterday and managing to withhold my excitement until today, i had to do exactly that. and it took such a long time for me to decide which oils and butters and fragrance combinations i wanted to go together that i didn’t get to actually make any soap until the day was almost over!
    • testing those recipes. i didn’t think about how i was going to make test batches with my new oils and butters, i was just so excited to get started making stuff! i guess it was a good thing that i got started so late today afterall, so the batch i made today will be ready to test tomorrow.
    • packaging. still haven’t decided on a) the packaging, whether it will be parchment or wax or brown paper or boxes or wraps or twine or or or! and b) the design of said packaging. what to do?!
    • figuring out fragrances. three huge and very important things i neglected to take note of beforehand were
      • fragrance flashpoints, which were not the hugest deal because each bottle has it listed. but the
      • vanilla content of each fragrance was super important, because it affects which recipe, color, and additives i’d be using. why didn’t i write this down when i was shopping for the fragrances!? it would have saved me so much time going back to each page to take note of this. same goes for the
      • maximum skin exposure percentage! this is crucial because i want to make sure my soaps are safe and as mild as possible. another super time consuming and annoying thing i forgot to just write down the first time.
    • the name!. i guess i have until the end of the week, when all of the soaps are actually DONE, to decide what to call them. but it’s the sort of thing i should really get solid on pretty soon, since i need to start with the packaging and the marketing and all of that crap. whew!

    i guess i did pretty well on preparedness, in general, but these little things set me back so far today. i wanted to have a 3-batch-per-day production plan going on, but i ended up with just this one. sigh. but i’ll keep working hard and hopefully i’ll be ready to make some serious dollars (and get some super moisturized skin!!).

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    phases, changes, etc.

    By: amber
    20-10-2011
    crafty, soap

    Tags: ,

    crockpot soapmaking:done i always come back here. this is where i’ve always belonged, here at fip.com. i think i’ve always needed my own space, and that’s why i find it so hard to let this site go, even though i know i never will completely. i disappear for some months, then i pop back up again. one day i will figure out how to manage this the way i want to, to use it for the purpose that i imagine but for some reason can’t realize.

    so anyway, i’m back to update the template, and to get things organized and in order for my new project: soapmaking!

    forever, i’ve wanted to make soap. and jessica and i did a long time ago, but it was just the lame-o melt and pour kind. i wanted to make REAL soap, real nice hard bars with oils just for my skin and scents that make me excited to take a shower. i think i never did it when i was younger because i was scared (you know, of all the measuring and the lye and the mess), i didn’t have my own space, and i never researched it thoroughly enough to know how easy it really was. recently, though, since i’ve been unemployed, i realized that now is the time. if i don’t do it now, when will i? so i dove in.

    let me tell you, it’s even easier than it seemed when i read through the many photo tutorials available online. once i made that first batch i knew i was destined to make soap, too. soap and yarn. what else does a girl need in her life?

    so watch out for kittenlogic bakery bars, which is the tentative name. i’ll be posting up my photo tutorial along with all the new stuff i make. i’m really happy about this development in my life, and i’m feeling so positive about it especially because of how wonderful and encouraging the boy is. i miss the craft world, i miss everyone being online and all of the comments and collaboration and support. i’m going to try to keep myself out there from now on, and who knows? maybe some of us, who wish things would go back to the way they used to be, will find ourselves together again.

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    first completed navajo ply!

    By: amber
    23-10-2010
    crafty, nonsense

    Tags: , , , , ,

    DSC_0090 i really don’t care for the look of 3-ply yarns, but i understand the need for them, and the fact that some fibers and some colorways just need to be 3-ply. splitting up my fibers across 3 bobbins, then trying to spin them perfectly and ply that way seems kind of silly, so instead of using my (new, awesome) tensioned lazy kate for that, i decided to use it to navajo ply my first full yarn.

    i’ve only ever tried to do it twice before, with the extra singles from a couple bobbins, and they came out terribly because i really needed tension. now that i have it, i just went for it last night, and although there are some weird little coils and beehives throughout, i think the final yarn came out really nice. right? for a first try!

    so like, i don’t plan on doing it very often, but i just think it’s responsible of me, as a spinner, to at least know how to be able to do it. there are two other bobbins i started long long ago that i will navajo ply, and after those, i don’t see much of it in my future.

    in other news, the cats are getting along well. snooki still growls sometimes, but it’s brief and there’s not much passion in it. i think nick is trying to get her to play, because i had this little catnip chicken toy in a box in the basement (he was afraid of it for ages), but the other night i went downstairs and it was on the complete opposite side of the room. today, i went down there and he was loafy, with the toy right in front of him, and she was loafing a few feet away from him. i don’t know if that’s progress or just a coincidence, but i like to be optimistic.

    0 comments

    man in the moon.

    By: amber
    05-10-2010
    crafty

    Tags: , , , , , ,

    CSC_0036 hola, friends. i’ve spent this week and most of last week spinning my face off. rhinebeck is approaching, i’m still unemployed, and i want to buy stuff. you see my predicament. the only solution was to spin more yarn. honestly, though? when i was looking around in my bins in the basement, i did see that i have like, a little bit too much fiber. and by “a little bit too much” i mean “way too much.” everytime i go to a festival that creativelydyed is vending, which is pretty much every major one, i buy so much of her fiber, then refuse to spin it because it’s so pretty. this must stop.

    the yarn in this post isn’t by her, though, i just started rambling as i often do. the fiber i spun that from is by girls like boys like fiber, who is quickly becoming one of my new favorite fiber artists. i love this yarn, named “man in the moon,” because it’s so different from what i usually do. variety is nice sometimes.

    it’s been the best spinning weather lately though. i’ve just been all cuddled up in my sweatshirt and have been going for it. btw, why the hell was it like 90 degrees early last week, and now it’s so cool out i have to turn the heat on? is this really the fall or is october just faking me out?

    anyway, i’m going to bed early because this freaky ass weather has been ruining my life as far as allergies go. i can’t even breathe anymore. but before i go, i have to leave you with the new funniest commercial ever. little kid commercials usually annoy the shit out of me, but this one is totally worth the watch.

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    thoughts on my spinning.

    By: amber
    25-09-2010
    crafty

    Tags: , ,

    DSC_0026 it’s funny when i think about my spinning, and how much it’s changed since i started. when i first started out, i was enamored of art and novelty yarns, their bright beautiful colors, and their slubbiness because … well, they’re delightful! but also because that’s what i could spin, and that’s what most of my spinny friends were spinning. when i started wheel shopping, i was speaking to more experienced spinners (because those are the people who are usually selling wheels), and they were telling me i needed to look for a more versatile wheel that would spin more than just chunky novelty yarn. i said “absolutely not! i will never spin sock yarn. it’s out of the question.” and i chose a wheel that would produce different types of yarn simply because of the price and the fact that it was a “good beginner’s wheel.”

    flash forward to now, and look at what i’m spinning. thin sock yarns are all that i spin anymore. how did it happen?

    i remember that for a while there were frequent, occasionally nasty debates in the spinning community about whether art and novelty yarns had any value or any use outside of art or trim applications. some of the master spinners there were saying that with the influx of new people picking up spinning, there were many people who could only spin art and novelty yarns, and that they were sort of doing a disservice to themselves having only that skill. i remember someone (there are always some high and mighty douches in forums) making the comment that one shouldn’t be allowed to even call him or herself a spinner if he or she could not spin a yarn to certain specifications. they said, if someone asked you to spin a laceweight 2-ply yarn, could you do it? if you can’t, don’t even call yourself a spinner.

    of course this person (these people, actually, since there were a few who agreed with the original toolbag) was extra rude and insulting about it, and though i completely disagreed with them (i think anyone who can make fiber into any kind of yarn should be considered a spinner, regardless of how well they do it), the point was made. so, though i saw myself primarily as a novelty yarn spinner, i secretly became obsessed with spinning the perfect sock yarn.

    and here i am today. with this yarn i’ve posted today, i think i’ve finally reached a point where i believe that i’m really good at it, and i can kind of move on. sure, i’m still going to spin thin sock yarn, because really, how many chunky crazy pom pom/sequin scarves and hats and shawls can you really make? but it’s no longer a quest to validate myself TO myself as a spinner. it’s just become what i like to look at.

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    me.

    my name is amber. i'm 28, i'm from south jersey, and i do a little bit of everything.

    i spin yarn, i dye fiber, i knit, i cook, i bake, i make soap, i design, and i teach. my first love is totally yarn, though. i used to be a high school english teacher until new jersey decided it hated teachers and education. i don't really miss it.

    eye candy.

    recently on flickr:


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