How To Be A Domestic Goddess

I believe the key to this is that thing we call "multitasking". But the important thing is to not realize it's multitasking.

The bathtub hasn't been properly scrubbed in a long time, a sadly long time I'm not even going to try to figure out. Oh it's been cleaned, but not thoroughly scrubbed, and whatever we were using didn't really make a big difference - and we've used a few things, from the generic brand natural cleaners, to CLR. So today I decided to try something I'd seen suggested but hadn't gotten around to trying yet. I mixed up a baking soda paste, slathered it onto the tub, changed clothes, headed into town to buy yarn for some baby gifts, came home, put on the other clothes, and headed back into the tub to scrub. I don't think the heading into town is necessary for when you do this, but I would suggest letting the mixture sit for at least a little while to do its work. The heading into town also isn't the multitasking - it is, but that's much too obvious for what I was talking about!

What I'm talking about is giving the tub a super amazing cleaning, AND giving myself a pedicure at the same time.

Now for this you will need baking soda (2 boxes), some water, a bowl, a couple of those round plastic/nylon mesh dish scrubbies, and gloves if you want them. Total cost of this, minus the bowl, gloves and water - probably about $3. And you will probably need at least 2 scrubbies - mine fell apart during the process.

For the baking soda paste, it took me 2 boxes of baking soda to do the whole tub. Dump about half a box at a time into a plastic dish, add some water (not too much, not too little) to make a paste - you don't want it too runny, but you don't want it too thick either, you should be able to stir it with your hands very easily, but it shouldn't be too soupy, but it shouldn't be thick or feel gritty because that means it's too dry. I'd say it should compare to the consistency of apple sauce. Make sure to check any edges of your container to make sure there isn't a ring or clump of dry baking soda hiding in there.

Once it's mixed just slather it onto the tub (or whatever other surface you want to clean), rub it around a bit, and let it sit for a while. Now it's time to scrub. I did the top edges by the wall by hand, but I wasn't going to stay bent over for however long it took to scrub the whole tub, in a cramped space, or try kneeling the whole time. So, I scrubbed the walls of the tub partially by hand, but the rest I used my feet to push the scrubbie around. Lots of pressure from body weight, and the scrubbie will work to exfoliate your feet. Not to mention baking soda is good for softening up skin (you can add it to your epsom salt baths/foot soaks!) Voila, bathtub cleaning and pedicure! Once you're done scrubbing, just rinse the tub clean with water.

How well does this work? Well, in the past year we have painted the bathroom, and replaced the window, and the tub has had the misfortune of having drywall compound, paint, and spray foam insulation dropped into it and not cleaned up fast enough. And there was a huge scuff from a stepladder non-slip foot. And some other very random dark stain we haven't been able to get out with natural cleaners and CLR. Oh, and don't forget the soapscum, calcium and lime build up. Well, it's sparkley clean now. The soapscum is gone, the calcium and lime is gone, the weird dark stain is gone, the paint came off (yes, that's right, the pale blue paint scrubbed off and didn't take the tub finish with it), the scuff disappeared. Mom was shocked at how well it came clean.

And me? Well, I'm happy I got a pedicure. Sure there's no nail polish, but I don't really use that anyways! Oh, and if you want a matching manicure, I'm sure the baking soda would work pretty good too! Or try a sugar scrub (mix 1tbsp salt/sugar/ground almonds/ground oatmeal/various other things with enough oil to make a slush), or I've heard toothpaste works pretty good to make nail tips nice and white.

Long Time, No Posts

Well, the blog was "down" for a bit while I revamped some stuff, I've also been busy busy with knitting.

So much so in fact, I've managed to make my wrists ache (potential RSI, most likely.) I still have quite a bit to do. Hats, cowls... but the blankets for my nieces are done, thankfully. Row upon row, upon row of garter stitch to make two almost-afghans for the 5 and 8 year olds. Don't think it's a lot? Together there's about 2km of string in those blankets! At least they love their hand knits. The 8 y/o asked specifically for a new blanket after the smaller one from last year had a run in with their one cat that sleeps on her bed.

Speaking of loving hand knits, a lot of people DON'T appreciate them, and call them cheap etc. In fact, there was one young poster on Ravelry who commented that her best friend wasn't supportive of her knitting, and when she said she was going to open an etsy shop and sell knitted things, said friend (or "friend"...) laughed at her and said no one would buy knitted stuff. It got to the point of the poster pointing out that her friend wanted a knit scarf and the friend said "Yeah, cause it's FREE, no one wants to BUY knitting!"

I did show a friend the basic breakdown of just how much work goes into a simple item. Well, okay, the hat I used isn't a HARD pattern, but it has cables, which can be considered a bit challenging (and I'm sure the intricate ones are!) I used the Katherine Hat I made as the basis of my example. The hat and pattern can be viewed at the original blog here: http://today-i-made.blogspot.com/2009/12/katherine-hat.html

So here we go...

Twisted ribbing of hat band - 80 stitches per round, 11 rounds, 80 x 11 = 880 stitches
First increase round of hat body = 120 stitches

Second increase round of hat body = 126 stiches

Sixteen repeats of a row in pattern - 126 x 16 = 2016, which leads to...

A pattern repeat is 4 rows, therefore... - 2016 x 4 = 8064 stitches

First row of decreases - 90 stitches

Second row of decreases - 90 stitches

Third row of decreases - 63 stitches

Fourth row of decreases - 31 stitches

Final row of decreases - 16 stitches.

GRAND TOTAL OF STITCHES: 9190 stitches!

I simplified it down a bit when I showed my friend the true cost of making a hat, as in as a "job". I figured out a simple 2x2 ribbed hat, made in cheaper acrylic.

Cost of yarn, approx $4 ($3.97+tax, minus a bit since the WHOLE skein doesn't get used, did not figure out the cost per meter or how many meters in a hat.)

Ontario minimum wage - $10.25/hr

Approx time make hat - I've done it in about 6 hours, maybe less, probably longer depending on what I do etc, but we'll take 6 as an average.

6 x 10.25 = $61.50
$61.50 + $4 = $65.50.

$65.50 for a basic ribbed hat, nothing fancy, in cheaper acrylic yarn. And that's not even with tax. Sales tax in Ontario is 13%, making the cost of the hat $74.02. And who REALLY wants to pay that much for a hand knit they can buy at Wal-mart etc for $6? I didn't even try figuring out how long it took me to make the Katherine hat LOL.

Sooo the above are why a lot of knitters knit only for the knitworthy, or won't take "knitting jobs", or will give you a "shocking" price for an item that a lot of people just don't think about the cost before asking someone to knit it for them. That said, plenty of knitters do knit for money, and will take "less" than what I figured out from the above. Also, a lot of knitters will knit stuff for people in general because they like knitting, but don't need all the stuff they knit. I knit mostly for other people, but I have some stuff I need to work on for myself too!

First I have to get through these x-mas gifts, then rest my wrists. So excuse me while I go back to marathoning The Big Bang Theory and knitting.

Lack of Updates, Whoopsies.

Sorry for the lack of updates, things have been busy, and I've really had nothing to write about.

Been knitting like mad, as well as sewing to finish my ICS course (still need to sew that damn top and take pics and mail it off....craaaap!!! Running out of time...)

I have friends getting married in a couple days, so congrats to them! I owe them a quilt, but I'm not sure which pattern to use... I like some, but I also don't really like them enough for it to be the one. BAH.

Knitting Product Review! Interchangeable Circular Needles

Hello to everyone who may actually read this blog! (which I'm finding more and more to be people I don't know that actually leave comments lol.)

It's been a while, a lot has been happening. I started my prep course for college about a month ago, give or take, and studying/memorizing has taken over my existence, among other things.

So my first post back is a product review. Yaaay. Please keep in mind, I'm not being endorsed by the company and all that jazz (although if they wanted to give me free products to review it could be negotiable LOL - not overly likely to happen but you never know!)

Recently I discovered the online shop, KnitPicks (www.knitpicks.com) and I don't really remember how or when, but I think I was looking at shawl patterns and falling in love with those, and I went looking for lace weight yarn that preferably wasn't sheeps' wool, as a lot of my family members (as well as myself) are sensitive/allergic to it. And I found they have lovely alpaca wool! But that is NOT what I am reviewing today! As I haven't had a chance to knit it yet :( (SOON! SOON I SHALL KNIT IT!!! And there will be photos!) It feels great as a skein though!

So today's review is about the Options Interchangeable Zephyr Acrylic Circular Knitting Needle Set by KnitPicks.

How this all started was that the shawl pattern I chose (Shipwreck circular shawl from Knitty.com) is knitted from the center out, and therefore is started on DPNs and then moved into circulars of increasing length and sizee as the shawl grows. I found myself needing 1 set of double pointeds, and then 7 sets of circulars of varying lengths and sizes. I found a very good deal on bamboo FIXED circulars - 15 pairs for $25 - but the downfall there was that they were all the same length (and I was looking for 40-47" longs!) Chances of me using the majority of those needles again was very very slim, due to the lack of versitility (and outside shawls or afgans, what am I going to knit with 40-47" long circulars? That's a bit big for a hat...) And also, who wants to be knitting 600+ stitches off one set of needles onto another, when with the other set is merely a change of tips?

Having already ordered my yarn from KnitPicks, and in casual browsing, seeing the interchangable needles, I started looking for those. My family is very frugal (often bordering on the side of cheap whenever possible), I searched for something in the $20 or less range. I found a couple hits on eBay, but I don't like in the US, and all the listings that were cheaper, didn't ship there. Then came the time to convince myself (and the money source, since I'm sharing the set with my mom), that the KnitPicks ones were better because they really did indeed offer more options. I did the math, and all that, and it was settled. We were going with the interchangable Zephyrs.

Their listed retail price on KnitPicks is $67.38 for the set. They seem to be on the website all/most of the time (at least for the past few months) for $44.99. This price is at least 50% less than the next lowest priced set offered by another company (not one of the other sets offered by KnitPicks, which are $60-75, but still much more affordable.) The set includes 9 sets of needles (Size 4 US/3.5mm to size 11 US/8mm), 4 cables (2 each of 2 different sizes [24" and 32"]), 8 screw on end caps (these are to be screwed onto the cable ends to keep your current project from sliding off if you need the needle tips for another project), a vinyl zippered case to hold the needles (it fits everything), a clear plastic case to hold the cables, and 2 cable keys to help lock the cables to the needle tips.

Very easy to use. Just screw the tips to the cables using the cable keys. And DO use the cable keys - I originally hadn't, and after a while within the first week of knitting the project I was testing them on (a wrap) the needle tip started coming off the cable. I tightened it with the cable keys and it's been on there for months with no sign of loosening unless I want it to. The needles and cables also have a very smooth join, I have yet to have yarn snag, and I'm using yarn that likes to split.

The tips have some amount of give to them, making them easy on the hands compared to a lot of metal needles I've used. The tips are also sharp - it hurt a bit at first to poke myself with them until I got used to it. They're not super super sharp as in "they're going to hurt me" sharp, but it's sharper/pointier than most plastic and metal needles I've worked with.

The other fun part about this set is that you can expand what you own for it. They sell needle tips individually ranging from $4-$7 a set, you can buy a cable binder case that's bigger than the cable case they give you/more organized than the one with the set. You can buy more cables in other lengths. You can also get cable connectors to join multiple cables together for a longer cable - I bought these. It's about $2 for 3 connectors, and they come with instructions and a cable key. I bought a set of these, they seem to work well - they join tightly and smoothly (there's a little bump, but the yarn travels well over it.)

Honestly, I think the only "complaint" I have about them is that the needles all look the same (they're all clear acrylic) and they're not engraved or stamped or marked ON THE NEEDLE as to what size they are. They come on a piece of cardboard that has their info on it, but that's no good if you take them off that or they fall. Personally, I don't really own a needle gauge thingie. I do, however, own an engraver, so I can hopefully fix that without messing up how smoothly the yarn travels.

Oh, and a second product review, just a little one! KnitPicks also sells knitting needle coil wraps. They're awesome! They hold pairs of knitting needles together when not in use. So handy, even with a knitting needle wrap case thing! They sell lots of neat little things, and lots of pretty yarns! I do recommend you check their site out! :)

Happy knitting!

(And again, I'm NOT getting anything from the company for this review)

A Poem

I have long loved the poetry of Alexander Pushkin, since high school really. So here's one; for some reason it strikes a cord inside tonight, though I admit I don't think I've ever really paid this one much attention until now.

The Prophet

by Alexander Pushkin, written in 1824.

Parched with the spirit's thirst, I crossed
An endless desert sunk in gloom,
And a six-winged seraph came
Where the tracks met and I stood lost.
Fingers light as dream he laid
Upon my lids; I opened wide
My eagle eyes, and gazed around.
He laid his fingers on my ears
And they were filled with roaring sound:
I heard the music of the spheres,
The flight of angels through the skies,
The beasts that crept beneath the sea,
The heady uprush of the vine;
And, like a lover kissing me,
He rooted out this tongue of mine
Fluent in lies and vanity;
He tore my fainting lips apart
And, with his right hand steeped in blood,
He armed me with a serpent's dart;
With his bright sword he split my breast;
My heart leapt to him with a bound;
A glowing livid coal he pressed
Into the hollow of the wound.
There in the desert I lay dead,
And God called out to me and said:
'Rise, prophet, rise, and hear, and see,
And let my works be seen and heard
By all who turn aside from me,
And burn them with my fiery word.'

To see more of his poems, go HERE.

Also, I'm not really sure why it seems to have hyperlinked the title, because I didn't tell it to... :-/

Random Update

Soo just a quick update, lots of things happening... Working on a lot of knitting and other textile projects. Just.... lots of random stuff lol.

I have King Nothing by Metallica stuck in my head lmao.

The other night I cooked a whole duck, first ever (and yes, I used a full sized duck, not ducklings.) It was SOOOO YUMMY!!! I used this recipe here http://southernfood.about.com/od/duckandgooserecipes/r/blbb369.htm

By the time it was done cooking the bird was falling apart when I was trying to take it out of the pan. Everyone loved it, so if you need a duck recipe, I suggest that one. I'd also suggest maybe trying to get some of the basting butter stuff UNDER the skin. Maybe I just suck at basting, or whatever, but the meat near the skin had some flavour, but nothing like the amount in the skin (which came off the meat and was therefore either not eaten, or eaten separately) and the meat from the sides closest to the insides tasted a lot like oranges, so getting some of the basting mixture under the skin might help even it out a bit, but it was still very very yummy!

This week has also included very yummy pork ribs, as well as chicken drumsticks, and lots of birthday cake (a 1/4 slab cake is MORE than enough to feed 7 people lol), as well as yummy chicken and steak terriyaki at our favourite Japanese restaurant.

Anyways, sleepy time is calling!

Dream... or maybe it's a Nightmare.

It was a while after the man walked away through the snow before the girl raised her head from the horse's neck. The horse's ear flicked back, then the large black beast turned its head to regard her.

"He's right you know," she said quietly. "It's much too cold to be crying here."

The beast snorted softly in response and lipped the girl's shoe.

"And you're right too... We've always been alone. But we've got each other. At least sometimes."

The horse's head turned, ears perked, and then the girl heard it too. A bird call. The horse nickered softly and looked at the girl again. The girl gave the horse her slow, sad smile and shook her head.

"No, we've lost him, haven't we?"

The horse blew out a breath and started again, out over the frozen lake. The girl resumed her position laying on the beast's neck, and neither cared when the ice began to crack.