upcycled/recycled yarn

I mentioned this idea and explained the basic method but a pictures worth a thousands words so i wanted to make a step by step tutorial, but low and behold someone has already made one and quite a good one at that, soo instead of trying to make one that would be shadowed in comparison here it is.

http://www.handspunartyarn.com/p/how-to-unravel-sweater-to-recycle-yarn.html

Trash craft; recycled/upcycled yarn

Acrylic is synthetic and with all synthetic leaks pollution into the air and water, cotton wastes tons of water organic or not and wool, well that just a crime in its self. So what is the Eco warrior knitter to do. As always hit up the thrift store. Now you can definitely find random balls of yarn lying around, but if your like me and want some good quality natural fibers I suggest hitting up the sweater rack. This a great way to get your hands on cruelty free wool in many colors. Now here's the tricky part, make sure the sweater was actually hand knitted not machine knitted, cut and pieced together otherwise you'll end up with a bunch of small pieces. You can usually tell pretty easily , i'll do a post on that some time but you can also look on line.
Now simple separate the individual pieces by cutting the small threading in between. Make sure your not accident cutting the knitting , do this under good light. Now all you have to do is unravel. Try to keep it organize by laying it going back and forth to prevent tangling. I suggest soaking the yarn in oxygen bleach or soapy water to get out any dirt or stains and to smooth the yarn out. Hang to dry, role up into a nice ball,and get your knitting needles out.

Purifying bees wax.

First let me say I highly support biodynamic bees keeping. I think it,s extremely important. With monocroping, and pesticide bees are fighting a loosing battle, and the species as a whole is getting weaker and weaker. I feel everyone should have bees in their backyard provided they keep to biodynamic methods, not just for the sake of bees but for environmental balance as a whole which effects all living things. One of the standers is to only to take the left over honey in the spring. And I,ve also read that even if your not going to eat the honey it's recomended to take the left overs to increase polination of the surrounding area. Very important. That being said on with the purifying. It incredible simple. I was given some raw wax ( raw meaning dirty) by a friend who had just extracted honey from his backyard hive , the wax was jumst left over after filtration.  Simple place the wax into a nylon sack or wrap in cheese cloth tightly (old panty hose work great) simmer in a pot of water for a 30 min or until the sack seem empty. Squeeze the sack with thongs and let the pot and everything in it  cool completely. Leave over night if you what. Then simply lift your solid piece of purified wax of the top and pat dry. You may notice some small encased water bubbles, this is fine, just press down to release water and dry off. Now you are ready to use this for what ever you like. Salves, candle, or even modeling wax. Recipe to come.

I finished the infinity scarf

It's smaller than I intended, so I think this one belongs to amelie. I'm still really happy with the way it turned out. Next I'll start on Elis.

Getting serious.

So we've been rearranging the front run in an attempt to make it worthy of calling a library for the little ones. Well it's a work in progress but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and I think we can least call it a reading room. I've really set my mind to homeschooling and have been working on the home environment and materials. I have a list of monessori supplies I'm getting ready along with waldorf inspired art supplies and handwork. I've also join a few homeschooling group one of which is the unschoolers. So far we have been invited to go with a homeschooling family to the science and art museum, and are hosting another family who would like to learn about chickens. We are also signing up for a 3 month homeschooling PE group at the uvu held every Friday. Super excited, really great group. I can't wait to meet new people. I m hoping to start up a hiking group in the spring. Whether or not we chose to do open class room next year is up for debate again, though it seems daddy is leaning towards homeschooling full time and so am I.  We will see. Wish us luck on this journey we call life.

Snow

Long awaited, Thankyou.

Things I love.

Knitting early in the morning , nettles tea with honey,watching the sunrise from my cosy coach. It's a lovely morning.