Therapy Friday-ish, Part II

As promised, the rest of the April Phat Fiber Box.   I know it's a bit late, but luckily fiber has a pretty good shelf life.

 A lot of pictures under the cut!

Therapy Friday-ish

Whew, ok, I put my first pattern on Ravelry, and let me just say, I am surprised, humbled, delighted, and a little bit bubbly at the positive response so far.   Part of me says Oh, but it's just a little sheep... But it's a sheep I was able to make and then share with others.  How giddy!  Thank you. :)


It's been an exciting week(s) over all, I met my first Phatty, that I know of, at Mayday! Underground Indie Crafts + Arts Festival.  At first I was all angsty over the fact that a venue selling only handcrafted things was a silly thing to call indie (I suppose there are handcrafting franchises, but I don't think they are the norm) or underground (it wasn't really clandestine, that would be terrible for sales), but then it actually turned out to be in a (positively awesome warehouse) basement.  Truly, that is the best meaning of underground craft + art festival I can think of.


I was allowed to touch all sorts of fibers/yarns/soaps at the Fuzzy Bunny booth and I wasn't even chased off before I could buy several things.  As a bonus we got a quick spinning wheel demonstration, and met someone really pleasant. Plus, oh my gosh, the fibers. The fibers!


Plus, now we own a mini-lathe,  so I can do some really high speed spinning.    Har har.  (Seriously though, I've been going to bed thinking of making drop spindles and waking up thinking of making chip carved turning bowls for the supported spindles I'm saving up for.)


Anyway.


Fiber.


I left a bag of it on the couch and President Nixon was there in a flash, kneading away, with the biggest, happiest cat smile.  Truly, that must be the real way to make neps.


Ok, wait, back to fiber.   Honestly, that's where I've been trying to go this whole time!

I promised way back when I bought my first Phat Fiber box that I would write more about each little sample.  It's fun for me to flex my writing-about-things muscles, and maybe it will point one or two people towards shops with their dream fibers/stitch markers/patterns.   Win-win.

This is getting wordy, so I will keep it to the feeble amount I have spun so far.

Yeti Wears a Party Hat

Merino, faux angora, banana fiber, angelina, mohair, BL X, cashmere, nylon, sari silk, firestar 

This is a very funky batt!   It was a sample from Atomic Blue,  and when I first saw it I felt something similar to panic.   I barely know how to spin, and here was a batt that looked like it might fight back.   But in the end, it was very educational!   Some of the fibers I couldn't place, but the merino, angelina, and sari silk were all pretty easy to peg.   Now I'm not scared to spin the merino I've bought.   Or, less scared.  Yay! (Why would I be scared to spin merino but not alpaca? I don't know!)

Home grown Natural Colored Kid Mohair  locks from Farmgirl Chic

These are unbelievably soft.   I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I took just one (1!!) lock and spread it out over some (about 1/4 oz.) coopworth roving.  A little went a long way, and the yarn it made was, well, worth making!  I like that they were pretty long, which meant instead of just flopping out of the yarn, in little sections, I could easily, much more easily than I expected, incorporate it with the roving.

The end result.

"Spring Peepers" 100% alpaca fiber, locally raised, from FiberDiversions 

According to Lisa the way she prepares her fibers makes the small bits fall off.  Sadly, I don't have enough experience with alpaca (yet) to really vouch one way or another.  I will say that even though I'm a beginner, I was able to spin my finest yarn, yet:





Mmm...soft and silky 3 ply!

Therapy Friday - "Hunka" review - fruity

Oop, a short post today, I got involved in trying to figure out a new pattern to give you guys, plus various other on-line things, and I lost track of the week!

Fruity Little Drink
Peach colored
smells like Hawaiian Punch mixed with peaches
very strong scent - even touching dry soap leaves fingers smelling cheerful
incredibly creamy feel to the wet soap, and lathers very well

Peach Fizz
Tangerine colored
The same creamy and comfortable lather as Fruity Little Drink. Just a little bit on a washcloth lathers up the whole thing, and it looks like one little hunka would be good for around a week, if I let it dry outside of the shower.
Smells like fresh peaches, with maybe a touch of lemon to liven things up. Nice!

I Wanda
Smells like olive oil and some sort of girl-y lime flavored drink. It's actually very clean, and refreshing smelling.

All of these soaps have a nice fruit-stand sillage away from the soap, but up close it smells like clean, comforting, olive oil soap. I don't know if the soap smell overpowers the fruit smell up close, or if there is something about the fragrance that only works when they are actively wafting. Either way, I enjoy the effect - clean, natural, with enough fragrance to make for an interesting bubbly mini-vacation but not so overpowering that it's gag-me artificial.

Therapy Friday: B.E. Dickens Soap

The power of a good scent. (And of having a husband take good pictures of President Nixon.)

Do you know what I love? I love when blogs have some sort of weekly treat, an ongoing theme that I can start to feel familiar with.

I think for this blog Shopping Therapy is a pretty good one, as I already chat about my acquisitions either for or while crafting. Etsy is a dangerous place! But I love it so!

So here goes...Therapy Friday!
Picking who to order soap from can be a little overwhelming! Just clicking on "soap" currently gives me 1315 pages of options. It makes me feel a little like I'm in National Treasure, hunting for a clue in a vast sea of artwork,

Or, I can go hunting for my favorite scent notes. Searching for "tea" gave me 53 pages, searching for "violet" gave me 8 pages, and searching for "iris" gave me...are you ready? One page. Several soaps shaped like an iris, a couple with iris extract for beauty benefits, and at the time just one that listed iris as a scent note. (On a side note: I have found almost all of my purchases via a tag search - those tags really matter! I appreciate sellers who take the time to write up accurate and thorough tags.)

I love iris/orris scents. It seems to be a growing trend in perfume, one which I approve of - a couple of my favorites are PG's Iris Taizo, or Le Labo's Iris 39. Another recent release was Prada Infusion d'Iris, though alas! despite high hopes it did not, shall we say, cooperate with my skin's chemistry. Just another case of me thinking I wanted something I didn't really want (in perfume! Or in life? Hmmm...)

So my soap craving self went ahead and purchased B.E. Dickens Fleur de Lis, a pretty pink bar with notes of iris and violet. Perfect!

And, because sample sized objects fill me with a sort of giddy glee, with their sweet miniature proportions, I went ahead and indulged in B. E. Dickens hunka soap package. I'm glad I did!

Between my selections, and hers, I ended up with 19 soaps to try. Oh, I can feel the therapy working already! The samples range in size from slim and flirty to hunka handsome.

When I opened the box I was walloped with an instant scent memory - turning 21. A combination of scents, I think Peach Puff and Azariah, smelled fruity, a little bitter, and distinctly fizzy. I don't usually like fruity scents, but it was a moment of nostalgic bliss.

The scents I remember ordering, because I was looking forward to them and convinced I would like them best, were:

Lavender Divinity, River Birch, Honey Pun, Goddess (amber and patch), Jonquil ("Luscious notes of iris, jasmine, balsam & lichen" - and I'm guessing jonquil), and Willy Street (clove, sandalwood and...are you ready for this? Tobacco!).

Will this be another case of my eyes being disconnected from my nose? Well, I still think I will love them, but maybe not as much as the rest of my treasure trove.

It will take me a bit to figure it out, because I certainly intend give each little bitty baby soap the full shower treatment. Plus, I can draw out my therapy over many Fridays this way. Mmm...anticipation!

The scents I either forgot I ordered, or that B. E. Dickens in her bubbly wisdom knew I'd love, were : b.e. naturals Kali (clay rich with notes of sage, rose, citrus - I'm drinking sage tea right now, must be soap psychic powers!), b.e. natural Cybele (clay infused with notes of neroli, jasmine and sandalwood), b.e. natural Danu (clay plus notes of lavender, eucalyptus, jasmine and other sweet flowers), Peach Puff, Eqyptian Sky (desert resins), Azariah (a musky unisex with bergamot and (gasp!) leather), I Wanda (lime and olive - or maybe tropical fish), Lanai (the artist's favorite - notes of Lemon Verbena and flowers), Grand Dame (floral), Grandmother's Lilac, Fruity Little Drink, and Atomic Pepper (citrus and chili pepper).

See? That's a lot of showers!

The full size is plenty large enough (haha), plus it was beautifully packaged.

The soap itself seems to be nicely scented, not overwhelming. Many of the lighter scents seem to, when dry, smell primarily of rich, creamy soap with a frisky streak of well balanced fragrance. Nice! Also, I can't get over how darned sweet the packaging was - next time I decide to buy nice soap as a gift this will probably be my destination. It looked pretty, simple, and elegant. The only cautionary detail was that it was wrapped with price tag, but I'm sure that could be removed by the seller! Plus, the little sample soap carry container included with the Hunka looks like it will be astoundingly useful. Taking a dash of sudsy scent with me as I travel? Oh yes, please!

Overall, without even stepping into a shower, it has already been a good value for money - nice scents, generous samples, packaged beautifully and professionally, plus a bonus dash of a happy scent memory.