There is far, far too much that has been going on since my last post. I can’t begin to address it coherently right now. So instead, I just want to enthuse a bit about one of the new hobbies I’ve picked up (or, at least, started) during the past six months. And that is soap making.
Not that I have anything particularly novel to say. But it does seem to me to be kind of miraculous that I can take some caustic substance I bought at the hardware store, and carefully mix it with some water and some other stuff I bought at the grocery store – and could EAT – and come out with something that makes stuff clean. I am a wizard!
Soap making is an easy rabbit hole to fall down – so easy, in fact, that I spent several hours last Friday night learning chemistry and doing math FOR FUN. (High school me has keeled over from shock.) I think it’s because it ticks so many of the boxes that I want in a craft: it’s moderately technical, but with plenty of room for “artistic expression”. It’s useful, not purely decorative. And it’s concrete – it’s easy to see the process coming together and the products changing and finalizing. (All of these descriptions apply to knitting, too – another craft that I enjoy and find greatly satisfying.)
Anyway, I’d recommend it if you want to try something different. The scariest and most complicated part is using the lye, and cleaning up after you do so. (Caustic!) The rest of it is just fun.
HaskinPhoto 