Laundry without machines...

My daughter researched online and found this method for washing clothes with a homemade man power washing machine. You buy four big buckets with lids, a pvc pipe gasket and a plunger at the local hardware store. One bucket and lid is used for washing the clothes. You cut a hole in the lid and put a plumbing gasket in it. The stick your plunger through it and put the lid on the bucket. When you get ready to wash the clothes, you put your water and soap in and then put in a load of clothes, put the lid back on and use a churning motion to wash the clothes. We found that putting holes in the plunger helped it agitate the clothes better. I do one round of washing, drain it into the tub, then fill the bucket with water to rinse. I do two rinse rounds before transfering the clothes to the wringer bucket. To wring out your clothes you use one of the buckets without a lid and you drill a few holes in the bottom to allow water to drain out. Inside that bucket you place another bucket with holes in the bottom as well. You fill that bucket with your washed clothes. Then you set the last remaining bucket in on top of the clothes and you put the lid on it. You simply sit on that bucket (I put a cushion on it to make it easier on my rear). When you sit, it pushes the top bucket down onto the clothes which then drain into the bottom bucket and finally out the holes and into the tub to drain. I read while I sit, or wash the next load of clothes. Then I take them into the kitchen where I have my clothes drying rack set up over an old towel and I hang them. It takes about a day and a half for everything to dry (I wring them out a little bit while hanging them because I don't like to sit on the buckets for long).

This is my set up:

My homemade laundry soap is made with:
1cup Borax
1cup washing soda
1cup baking soda
1 grated bar of hand soap (I use Ivory because it's cheap and I do a lot of wash around my place.LOL)
I put all the ingredients in a large plastic tub and stir it together really well. I use an old starch can lid as my scoop.

Turning Old Socks into Gloves

A couple days ago my daughter was wearing some old socks on her hands. She had cut off the foot part of the sock and cut a hole for the thumb and had some instant fingerless gloves and It put the idea into my noggin that I might be able to re-purpose old socks this way. So yesterday I came across some old socks that my son had given me. They were some that a friend had given us a year ago and they were 100% wool, but had been washed and had shrank. They were also felted, but not on purpose, so they were really thick and too small for anyone in the house to wear. I don't know why I hung onto them, but they were definitely ready to be remade into something useful!
First, I cut off the bottom of the sock to just above the heel increases and then cut a hole for my thumb. 
Next, I pulled up stitches with my size 5.0 mm double pointed needles, using some worsted weight yarn. I evenly spaced the stitches around the glove, but didn't need to count them. I knit the first round in stockinette and then did four more rounds using k1,p1 ribbing. Then I bound them off.
Then I used the same worsted weight yarn and a size "H" crochet hook and crocheted one time around the thumb hole in single crochets. I weaved in the ends and I had a fingerless glove! Here's a picture of the finished item!

A Lull in my Blog

I've had a bit of a lull going on lately. Not because my financial life has changed any, I'm still on my tiny fixed income, but because I've been seeking ways to make it grow a little. I opened up my online store again and I've been attempting to get a business going and it's been all consuming. I started by putting a few of my knitting patterns on Ravelry and then decided I should sell the items I've made in order to write the patterns. The problem is that I shared my work on facebook and was inundated with people making orders. I ended up with so many that I ended up closing my Etsy store, just so I could concentrate on the private orders. I'm still playing catch up and had to take a day off today in order to keep my sanity.

I have made a goal that I will not buy any more clothing from a store, with the exception of shoes (I have diabetes and can't afford to take a chance on rubbing a sore on my feet). I bought a pattern to make bras and have found a couple online to make my underclothes. I have a ton of extra fabric that I can use to make my cloths and I'm a notions pirate (I steal things off old cloths to use for new ones; buttons, zippers, etc). I have a working, though not perfect, sewing machine and two old Singers that I keep threatening to fix up. I believe that our society has become too dependent on industry to make our clothing, grow and cook our food, and give us the things we need to clean and maintain our homes. It's time to bring some balance back by doing everything we can to take care of those needs for ourselves.

By the end of this year I hope to be growing and providing some of my own food, making all of my own clothing, and providing all of my own cleaners and cosmetics.

Here is my basic sock patter in case anyone likes to knit and wants to start making their own socks:
Basic knit cuff down socks