Felted soap - what's that all about?

I tend to find I don't use bars of soap nowadays.  Liquid soap sits at each sink and a rainbow of shower gel bottles inhabit our bathroom.  The soap bar in a gratefully received toiletry set frequently becomes an orphan.

I love Arran Aromatics, or Arran - Sense of Scotland as they're now known, but the Eydis soap I received in this set was languishing in our bathroom cupboard so I decided to liberate it and create a felted soap bar. 

But why would you? 

Felted soap isn't a modern idea.  In the past, soap was encased in a fabric pouch to make it last longer.  By felting the soap into a wee woolly parcel, you get soap and cloth in one.  The wool helps exfoliate the skin and the soapy suds don't go to waste.  It's also easier to hang onto when you're washing as it's less slippery than a naked bar of soap.  You can still enjoy the lovely fragrance.

All pluses so far - but isn't it unhygienic?  Well, I learned that bacteria prefer smooth surfaces so the natural antibacterial properties of the uneven wool coating deter unwanted adherents apparently.

So I proceeded to make a felted soap of my own.  There are lots of really great tutorials online showing in detail what to do - I probably followed this one most closely.

It seemed like a soap bar with rounded edges might be easier to work with so I used the potato peeler on my soap bar's straight edges and kept the shavings to use when I need soap flakes.

I looked out some merino wool roving which I've used in other projects and a pair of old clean tights.

I wrapped the soap bar in the wool roving and popped the woolly soap 'parcel' into the toe of the tights to help it all stay together.

Then I put on some music that I knew would last for at least half an hour because that's how long you need to rub the soap in warm water to make the fibres stick together.

No loose fibres should come away during the 'pinch test' ensuring the wool has felted successfully.  I then left my soap bar to dry overnight.  (I also had the cleanest hands in the world!)

Here's the dry soap the following day.  I chose to decorated mine with a bit of needle felting, adding a wee pink star.

My intention with this blog post had been to show what happened once the soap was used up but here's the soap on it's first day in use and the same soap one month later.  The wool shrinks as it gets wet and dries again so it continues to fit snugly around the soap.  I've been using it every day and try to use it every time I wash my hands at home.  It's clearly going to last a very long time!

So here's a decorative and practical way I've put a bar of soap to use - and I'm liking the result!

What - no golfclubs?

My incredulous husband made this remark when he heard I was going to Dornoch, home of the famous 400 year old golf course, with its Royal title, which is ranked number 5 in the world.

This weekend, though, I was attending the Dornoch Fibre Fest with my friend, Alison.  It was knitting needles and crochet hooks rather than drivers and putters, and balls of yarn rather than the white dimpled variety, that we had in mind as we travelled three hours north to the picturesque cathedral town.

The event is a celebration of fibre and woollen crafts and comprised classes, demonstrations, drop-in sessions as well as retail opportunities and was held in two venues in the town.  The gaily decorated lamp posts helped direct visitors from one hall to the other.

Alison and I aren't newcomers to the fibre festival circuit, having enjoyed previous trips together to Edinburgh Yarn Festival last March and the Highland Wool Festival at Dingwall in May 2015.

It was a delight to see stallholders we'd met before and some new vendors too.  Here's Helen from Ripplescrafts, Laurence and Clive from Gongcrafts and Julie from Black Isle Yarns.  It was lovely to blether and I may have purchased some yarn from them all along the way!

Fibre festivals are friendly, colourful, enticing places.  At Dornoch there was squishable hand-dyed yarns from dedicated small batch producers as well as beautiful undyed natural fibres.  There were cute kits to make kids garments, fabrics, threads, spinning supplies and all the knitting accoutrements and paraphernalia one could wish for.  Sellers and buyers shared their love of crafts, inspiring each other and swapping pattern details, and there was a happy atmosphere.

As well as enjoying morning coffee and lunch at the venue, and to keep up our energy levels, we visited Dornoch Patisserie and Cafe for coffee with warm white chocolate and raspberry bread pudding - delicious!  I just loved the illustration on their menu.

The festival also featured a cushion competition.  Entries could be of any design using mixed media so I entered the baable cushion I'd made which I wrote about here.

I was absolutely thrilled to learn I'd  won first prize.  My cushion also won the prize from the Shetland Sheep Society as I'd used Shetland wool for the sheep in my design.  Double first!

My prize was a beautiful candle bowl from Tain Pottery - in a design exclusive to Royal Dornoch Golf Club as they sponsored the competition.

So I didn't take my clubs to Dornoch - but I did come home with a prize from the golf club!