Homemade Laundry

I have been doing laundry by hand for almost 2 months now.  Why? Well Our local laundromat has a lot of broken down machines and the owners, being older, aren't wanting to put a lot of money into fixing things, or so I have been told.  It makes it hard to get a machine sometimes, especially when someone else is there and washing a month's worth for a family.  I just asked nicely on a local facebook group how the community could help spruce up the place.  It turned into a bashing session of different people saying things about me and on and on.  Well one guy said "why not get a washboard and go down to the river".  So I took his advice, sorta.  I DO have a wonderwasher that I love love love, so technically not washing everything by hand.

2 T-shirts is a load and it struggles with washing a pair of jeans.  Therefore there are a few things I DO have to wash by hand.  You cant believe how dirty the clean clothes were!  I spent nearly 2 weeks rewashing them and washing real dirty clothes to get them clean.  They smelled awful too.  They didn't smell clean.  It didn't matter how much laundry soap I put in the washer.   For the most part I used Zote laundry soap when I started washing by hand.  That stuff is AMAZING!  I used a lot of [off brand] oxy cleaner too.  Some items I had to wash multiple times to get them clean.

Now a month and a half later, doing laundry is a bit easier.  So far I have been able to keep up with it.  I just do a little each night as there is drying room available.  Smaller non bulky items I wring out by hand.  What do I use to wring out the bugger things?  The wringer on our mop bucket.  It does a pretty good job.  Some day I want a spin dryer.  Something similar to THIS ONE.  It would make getting the water out of the clothes much easier and drying time much quicker.

Now for the laundry soap?  Well I still have store bought liquid that I use occasionally.  It only takes at the most half a teaspoon for a load.  I have noticed though, which I find odd, is sometimes it makes our clothes smell like smoke.  We are non smokers and we aren't around any fireplaces, etc.  What I DO like to use though, like I mentioned above, is Zote laundry bar soap.  I bought several bars a few years back because I was wanting to make homemade laundry soap, but never did.  I also got them for $1 each!  SO what I have been doing is shaving a bar of the laundry soap and adding 2 scoops of the [off brand] oxy cleaner to it.  It's Amazing and takes about 1/2 teaspoon per load.  With all the extra washing I did on the first bar, it has lasted a month and a half.  I'm expecting this batch to last a bit longer.  But still it cost me so little to make, it's not that big of a deal.  LOL!

I know there is more I could put in there, if I followed the recipes found on the web, but why?  I have soap and the oxy cleaner stuff.  Together they do the job and it satisfies me and hubby.  Also if there is a smell that you can describe as "clean" it's our hand washed clothes.  I don't need any artificial smell ingredients added to my laundry, it would just add to the cost too.  :-)

Project Finished and a Yarn Bowl

SO here's the finished black cotton slouchy hat.  It turned out a little bigger than I would have liked.  It's because I increased one more row and didn't decrease 2 rows.  I hope the person who requested it is happy with it.

Probably not what you expect as a yarn bowl.  It's really a planter.  I got it for Christmas from my sister.  I think it's perfect!  Kitty cats and yarn.  It holds the random balls of yarn and prevents them from rolling off the table and around on the floor.

Rainbow Scruchies

My hair is so fine and thin that I have problems with any hair ties, even barrettes don't like to cooperate.  Today I hooked up a couple of rainbow scrunchies.  I like the bottom one the best.  They definitely stay in my hair better than just the plain old hair tie.

Weighing Yarn

SO I asked my fellow yarnies if you could weigh a project and find out how much yarn you used.  In theory it should work but no one had a definite answer for me and I couldn't find an answer in the internet.  I had this bright idea to see if my theory worked.  Of course it has to be all the same kind of yarn, and I'm guessing if it's old (like you weigh an old project to determine amount) the weight may be a little different.   That I will have to wonder about for a while unless someone has an answer for me. ;-)

SO I was using sugar & cream black cotton yarn.  It was a 4 oz skein.

 Here is the WIP weight, since it was an after thought.  It weighs 4 ounces

Here is the finished project weight

The left over yarn weight

and both together again. Finished project and leftover yarn.

So in this case, this project worked out just perfect.

I have weighed yarn for a friend.  She got some of those pretty caron cakes and one looked way bigger than the other.  Both were the same brand/color/dyelot.   One did way a smidge more, like 1/4 an ounce or so, but we decided the reason one looked so huge is one was wound tighter than the other.

Thanks for stopping by!

HHM 2/13/17

As I look outside my window:::
The sun is shining.   That's a plus.  It's only to get up to 57 today, and rain tonight.  57 is still a little on the chilly side for me.  70-80 is much preferred.
 
Right now I am::: 
Happy!  I was looking for a crochet pattern that I shared with friends and actually created, but never printed off the pattern.  After about a 2 hours search I finally found it.  I'm printing it off this time because I would like to make a few more.

Something funny from this past week:::
gosh, I can't remember anything.  I know something had to be funny.  I must need to find some mental brain exercises and do them.

Currently Reading:::
"The Bridesmaid" by Beverly Lewis I finally renewed my Kansas Library Card and dan download e-books again from the "cloud library"

On my to do list today:::
I need to print off a few things later, Clean the cat box, and well I found the pattern I was looking for, and hopefully go out of town.  I have a slouchy hat finished that I just need to sew in the tails, for an order, and I am currently working on another ordered slouchy.

Today's Lunch:::

We ate McDonalds:-/ I know, I know.....I had fries and a quarter pounder with a cuppa hot vanilla caramel tea.

Preparing for Warm weather:::
It has been warm/cold/warm/cold. It still can't seem to make up its mind. We seem to be having more warm days than cooler days though and the nights haven't been as cold.  BUT With it getting warmer it means it's nearing open window season.  We can't afford new windows, and our windows are old, old, old. It's the original widows and the building was build in 1920.  You can imagine what the wood is like.  I had an idea to replace the top windows (where most of the trouble is at) with painted thin wood, something like paneling, and framing up like we did the one we fixed last fall with boards holding the window up but still allowing the bottom window to open. This would also allow homemade screens to be set in the windows.  Hubby liked my idea so we shall see how it goes.  It would make it look nicer and would help keep heat/cold out.  Sorry if it's hard to understand.  If we do it I will share pictures.


What I am crocheting:::

I'm working on another slouchy hat for an order.   I'm thinking I want to make the new pattern instead of this one.  The customer hasn't prepaid, and just wanted a slouchy with a bigger "bag" for their dreads.  The other pattern might be cooler looking.  We shall see.


From the camera:::

Something I Recently Made:::

So I had some strawberries I wanted to use and it just seemed like a waste to just eat them.  I found this Cobbler recipe on Pinterest and thought Why Not?  Hubby and I ate almost the whole thing.  There is 1 serving each left.

Praise/Prayer List:::
PRAISE, my boys and a friend of theirs made a weekend trip to Pennsylvania for a Magic the Gathering Grand Prix event.  They arrived and returned safely.

PRAISE  My sister has a job!  She was jobless for several weeks.

Prayer that hubby and  can get well.  We both have a little of the cruddy stuff that's going around.

Prayer My grandpa, he is 97 and still hanging in there.

Prayer My niece....still in foster care but in constant contact with family.

I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom for HHM.  Go visit her and the rest of those who have joined in.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting.

A Little Tapestry Crochet

Our Friday Night Magic group is having a free tournament the last Friday of this month. They need a prize.  I told hubby I would come up with something.  I decided to make a plains mana symbol dice bag.  I haven't done a lot of tapestry crochet, but this one is the best one I have made.  There a re a few boo-boo's but I'm not going to tell you where.  ;-)

Finished minus the drawstrings and weaving in the ends.  It's approximately 6" tall and about 4" wide.  Just guessing I didn't actually measure it.

Here it is all finished.  Whew!  I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  I plan to tackle another one in a few months for another tournament prize.

Library Visit

Like the library is literally 2 blocks away.  Why have I not used it more?  It's because I'm usually too busy and their hours and my hours just don't coincide very well.  I have been trying to get out on slow days and visit though.  I haven't been to the library, in way too many years!  I have discovered that they have a rather large selection of DVD's to borrow.  That's what I have been getting.  Most of them aren't something we all would watch as a family, but there are a few.  I have also just now renewed my state library card which allows me to "check out" e-books.  It expired back in November.  Probably explains why access has been denied here lately.   Something I need to check is the magazines to see which ones the library subscribes to now.  I'm sure it has changed since I made regular visits in the past.

One last thing.....hurry and get it before the end of the Day today, Friday, February 3, 2017. Living on a Dime has their Valentines e-book for FREE!