doris

I love knitting, although socks are not my favourite thing to knit. I usually have a pair on the needles, though. There are so many beautiful sock yarns out there that it would be a pity not to try at least a few of them.

Let's see, you are allergic only to bar soaps, but not to any other cleaning products, regardless of scent or strength or anything. And the symptoms only show up after the doctor closes. So even if you use bar soap in the morning, you only get a reaction at night or on weekends. Odd!

No, they don't have a nice smell. What a pity, but I love them anyway.

You can melt your oils in any kitchen pot, and do your mixing in a plastic bowl or bucket, which you should keep only for soap. There's a lot of heavy plastic buckets around, the bakery depts of supermarkets often give them away. I think in theory you can use your stainless steel pot for cooking after making soap in it, I just wouldn't do it.

Try to get it shipped usps if you buy from the states. Then the brokerage fee is only $5.

I made a balm last year with beeswax, cocoa butter, lanolin and a few other things, and after reading one of the threads here on lotion candles, decided to melt it in a tart warmer and try it. I get cracks in my finger tips and dipped one of the cracked fingers in the balm and let it harden and cool, and left it on for about a half hour. It did make quite a difference in how it felt and healed. Did it cure the cracks? No. I also have arthritis and find that a warm lotion type of thing does feel really good, but I wouldn't use a lotion candle, I don't like all the "natural" fragrances most of them use. Recommending they be used on animals or children is insane, and if some of these things actually do use eo's instead of merely fo's, they could be dangerous to cats. And merely pouring hot eucalyptus scented wax on a dog will not eradicate the flea problem. You would likely have to dip the dog in it, and most dogs would not, hopefully, stand for being dipped in highly scented hot wax.

You're in Canada, right? www.aquariusaroma-soap.com in BC has them, and a lot of other stuff as well.

In my case, and I buy stuff from Pellon, which is considered good quality, it sometimes starts coming off before I get to the sewing machine. My suggestion is to get it from a good fabric store and ask them for suggestions. I think there is heavy duty available, but have never used it.

He can get fusible web and fabric and do his own designs as well. I always satin stitch with my sewing machine over the edges, but there's a type of fabric paint that leaves a kind of ridge when it's applied in a line, and I've seen that used to cover the raw edges of the applique. One thing he should watch out for, is some of the iron on stuff is not as permanent as they say. Do some samples and subject them to a bit of wear and tear and a few washes; I'm sure you wouldn't like it if people came back and said the applique came off.

Sounds like you're having fun. While you're getting stuff, get yourself a notebook as well, a smallish 6x8 one that is spiral bound, and write stuff down as you knit. The size means it doen't take up too much room in your bag, and the spiral binding means you can fold it back on itself so you won't need a table to put it on when writing. People laugh at me, but I write everything down. If you have trouble counting your rows, mark them down as you knit them. It becomes a habit. I also write down the needle size, # of rib rows, etc. I especially write things down when I have decreases, or 2 of one thing. The second time around, I just cross out what I wrote the first time. I knit a lot for sale, and it makes it easy to be able to go back and see what I did last time. Also, with some things I have developed my own patterns, and if I wanted to, I could probably track the changes through my notebooks. And if I'm knitting something where I know that a slight change would improve it, I mark that down as well and highlight it so that I will remember to do it next time. Before my mitten knitting days, I ordered 2 pairs from a friend of mine for my daughters. On one pair, one had a round tip and one had a pointy tip. Mine NEVER end up that way.

I could be wrong, but I think lead is only an issue if ingested. A lot of metal beads have some lead content, but usually very little. If the jewellery isn't going in your mouth, you needn't worry; only if you are giving it to someone with little kids.

There are a few different ways to decrease, in most cases it doesn't matter which you use. K2tog slants to the right, while sl1k1psso will slant to the left. When you are decreasing for the toe of a sock, for example, you would put the k2tog on the left side decrease so it slants towards the middle, and sl1k1psso on the right side decrease so it also slants towards the middle. It just looks better. Casting off 4 st at the beginning of the next 2 rows is usually done when there is a decrease of a larger # of st, for example, for a shoulder. If you are doing decreases at the edges of a sweater, as, for example, with a raglan sweater, I find it easier and it looks better if you do the decrease 1 st in. For example, (starting from the right edge), k1, sl1k1psso, k to the last 3 st, k2tog, k1. Doing the decreases 1 st in would give you a firmer edge, and the shape of the decreases, in this case, will also follow the shape of the edge. Hope this all makes sense, and doesn't just confuse you more.

I ALWAYS, regardless of what it is, knit the first stitch. If I'm making a scarf or shawl, I slip the last stitch with yarn in front. (Put the yarn in front of your knitting like you're going to purl, but just slip the stitich instead). This will give you a sort of braid going up the scarf. If I'm knitting something which will be sewn together, like a sweater, I knit the first and last stitch. This will give you little bobbley things on the side, which can then be matched up when you sew. For simplicity's sake, maybe try knitting the first and last stitch, and see if your problem goes away.

Get narrow masking tape, and put it around the orange from "pole to pole", and the again at right angles to the first tape. This will divide to orange into quarters. Then fill these quarters up with cloves, and roll in cinnamon or whatever. THEN take off the tape, and you will have these clean, clove and cinnamon-less areas of the orange, around which you can put a decorative ribbon and tie on top in a bow. Does this make sense? I've seen them done like this, you can also tie it in a way that part of the bow is a long loop for hanging.

allspice?

Sometimes people get an extra loop of yarn on the needle, and then they knit into this on the next row, and end up with an extra stitch. Look at each row when you finish it. If the stitiches on the needles look like l l l l l l l you should be fine; if you have this l l l / l l / l l l you have extra yarn loops. they can just be dropped off the needle if you're not too fussy. I don't crochet for that reason. I never knew where to stick the hook, and ended up with a scarf that varied drastically in width from row to row. Never had that problem with knitting, however...

If left alone and in a reasonably dry place, they will dry on their own and last forever. I had one for years, it got smaller and smaller, but still smelled wonderful for a long time. Make sure you use quite a few cloves.

Row 2, increasing 10 st evenly across row: if you have, for ex 100 st, you would divide 100 by 10 (the # of increase st) and get 10, and then do an increase on the 10th st. You can either knit into the front AND the back loop of the 10th st, or pick up the loop between the 10th & 11th st, put it on your left needle, and knit into the back of that for your increase st. You want to increase evenly across the row, otherwise you will get a bulge if you increase all in one place. Row 7 - you've got it. Resources:knittinghelp.com - this has how to videos and all sorts of stuff, as well as a forum. knittingpatterncentral.com - gazillions of patterns from all over knitty.com - there's a hat for kids on here called, I think, flower power that's a sort of a beanie with a flower on a stalk over it - really cute.

Sounds like you're having fun, which is what knitting is all about. It will get better and easier the more you knit. Good luck!

I've always been one of these people that tries not to waste anything, etc. Anyway, we once steamed some broccoli, and after the water cooled off, I used it to water some indoor plants. After a day or so in a heated house, I thought something had DIED, slowly and painfully, and was now putrifying in the house, but I was damned if I could find it. It was the broccoli water in the plants. Never again. It's not surprising that the oil smells as well, but then why call it "light and odorless"?

People dust soap? OMG!

I use plastic stacking baskets from our local dollar store. 2 will hold a batch of soap (each batch is 34 bars), I leave them on there for about 2 weeks then I move the soap to plastic shoe boxes. The shoe boxes and baskets live on a large resin shelf, but they started out on bookcases. Go with what you have easily and cheaply available for the time being, once you start soap making, you'll develop some ideas of your own as to what you need or want.

Don't feel bad. I started soaping I think in 2000, and that Christmas everyone in my family got a box of soap. My mother died in 2002, and last year, my father came for a visit, returned some of the gifts I had given her over the years, and there was the box of soap. I personally don't understand why your friend didn't even TRY the soap. It couldn't be the scent, because as far as I know, Dove is also scented. It's her loss, maybe she heard somewhere that soap is made with lye (snort!) and is scared of it. But I think I'd be over it by now. At least she didn't throw it out!

Years ago I re-learned how to knit with The Learn To Knit Afghan Book by Barbara Walker. An amazing book, but anything by her is amazing. It resulted in a blanket, now owned by my SIL. You went through all these different "lessons" and each one resulted in a square. If you decide upon a blanket, make sure your yarn is easily washable. You can also make coasters, cushion covers, and if you really really need this much practice, I'm sure hospital nurseries and dog pounds could always use blankets.

I'm sorry, but I thought that first you asked for help, and then you learned to make something and THEN you wholesaled your product. I wasn't aware that the order had changed that you sell your batch first, and then learn how to make it.