The Victorian Soap Project

As many of you know, one of my main research interests is the investigation and reconstruction of early soap recipes,  partly to record the facts for a book which will eventually get finished, but also so that I can put selected recipes back into production to allow re-enactors and other interested parties acess to soap which is made as closely as humanly possible to the original ingredients and methods, but which also complies with modern safety and quality standards.

This makes each bit of research quite expensive, so I'm trying out Crowdfunding for the current part, which is looking at Victorian gentlemen's shaving and toilet soaps.
Investors can put in as little as £1 and I have set up a system of rewards/repayments for larger amounts. If anyoen is interested, or knows anyone who may wish to assist with this project, the Crowdfunder page is here: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/the-victorian-shaving-soap-project-370

Please help me spread the word about this, its not a huge sum as research projects go, but I need to raise the money to cover the certifying chemist's fees and some additional research material and ingredients to allow me to get this stage of the Historic Soap project up and running.
Thank you!

Tough Love Spiked Wristlets

I'm slightly embarrassed at how long its been since I last updated this blog, in my defence its been a very busy summer. I've been very lucky to have had a good number of hat commissions through, but I've also found time to work on some new designs.

Here is the latest one. This is 'Tough Love', and its a remarkably simple to work wristlet in sock yarn. The soft spikes lend themselves well to the use of shaded or variagated yarns, and it may be embellished with beads for a bit of extra sparkle at endges and on the spikes. One wristlet should take about 18-20g of sock yarn, so its a good way to use up leftovers from a sock project.

As with all my patterns, its available through Ravelry, and this one costs just $3