Laundry day

Last night I did a load of laundry.

In the bathtub.

With my feet.

I had remembered watching a documentary called "No Impact Man" about a family in New York City who went off the grid for a year. They showed how they did their laundry in the bathtub, stomping out the dirt like stomping grapes for wine.

As my feet stomped and swished the clothes around in the soapy water, I thought about how there are millions of people in the world who don't have washing machines. Or dryers. And I remembered seeing on television people in India doing their laundry in the river. I felt a bit humbled reflecting on the contrast between that and my own life that is full of machines doing work for me. I noticed that my legs were getting a good workout from agitating the clothes and that the water started to run clear after a couple of rinsings.

My clothes got clean. They are still hanging to dry - I am resisting the urge to throw them in the dryer. Heh.

This probably isn't something I will do on a regular basis, to be perfectly honest. But I will not hesitate to do a small load by hand now and then rather than wasting a wash cycle on a few items.

Totally handmade!

I want to share a small personal victory - I made a scarf from my own handspun yarn!
And it is such a cool feeling to have done this. :D


First, I spun up a variegated single yarn from several sources: alpaca, merino wool and of all things - yak fiber! The dark brown fibers are a blend of yak and alpaca. The teal is alpaca. The rest is merino wool.


Then I took some undyed, white merino wool and dyed it a "chartreuse" color.
Dyeing in a crock pot:


Dried, freshly dyed wool, ready to spin:


I spun the newly dyed wool....


....then plied it together with the first batch of spun single yarn:


And I used the finished yarn to knit the scarf!




This was a very satisfying and fun project. I can't wait to try knitting something from my own handspun yarn again.