review: Sweet Tea N Biscuits Soaps

A little while ago I ordered some handmade soaps from Sweet Tea N' Biscuits on Etsy. Since I clicked purchase it had been an anxious wait for a little padded envelope to arrive at my door! Thankfully it arrived safely, and promptly--and securely packaged to boot.

When I opened the package, a sweet scent overtook my senses. I knew I was gonna love this soap.

Holly even packed a little thoughtful gift, a sort of thing one would only get when shopping handmade. My gift was of ginger peach tea, and a teeny sample of another one of her soaps. By this point I was already sold on her work so I’ll be happy to send the sample to the first curious reader who e-mails me. :] As for the tea, I brewed it right away. I adore trying new blends.

The one challenge to shopping for things like soap online is the adventure of purchasing soaps that you think you'll like based on its description. I personally like the thrill of it, but some may find it an uncomfortable gamble. Let me say that in this case, I took the chance with her Absinthe scented soaps and was not at all disappointed.

The top lighter colored bar in the photo below is named Absinthe. I can’t find the right words to accurately describe the scent of this particular soap either, but I do completely agree with Holly that it’s a beautiful gender-neutral scent. It smells crisp, nice and clean. :D The other soap, made with the remaining fragrance for a past customer has a bright and citrusy scent. I’d like to argue that the soap is gender neutral as well.

What’s also very nice to confirm is the degree of subtlety in the soap scents. Holly reassures me in her listing description: “This will not overpower you or your bathroom, and will probably not linger too strongly on your skin or clothing.” And now that I’ve tried it on my woolens, I can vouch for that!

I ran out of some of my favorite woolen soaps while in England, so I resigned to putting the sturdier blends in the washer with the rest of my clothes and laying flat to dry. This left the socks with an undesirable texture, especially around the heel. Now it’s totally possible that I’m committing a hand-washing sin, but I went ahead and gently scrubbed those bad parts of the sock in an attempt to save them. The rippled texture of the soap was just perfect for that! The socks felt as nice and soft as when they were when first blocked.

Kookaburra used to be the rinse of choice for personal and Bapsicrafts knits, but after using my personal knits as a guinea pig (with success) with Sweet Tea & Biscuits soaps, I think I have made a good soapy-friend. I feel better knowing how much less wasteful the use of a solid bar for handwashing is compared to liquids, and am happy to make the change to solids (and to handmade)!

Both soaps are what Holly calls "Wool or You". They're both made with lanolin, an oil great for your wools and for your skin! Lanolin is known to many as a wonder moisturiser, and after feeling its effect on my hands after the wash, I can agree.

Overall, I'm a happy customer. If you're looking for a light soap to use for your wooly handknits (wool-acrylic blends love a good bath in lanolin soaps too!) I recommend this shop as a great place to get started.

You can visit Holly at Sweet Tea N' Biscuits here. And like Sweet Tea N' Biscuits on Facebook for her witty posts, soap updates, and if you're lucky, maybe a giveaway.

strong letter to follow

Dear

Regia Hand-Dye Effect, You’ve been bad, very bad. In fact, you’ve been absolutely naughty.

I’ve frogged and frogged countless times, more than I usually do anyway. Your black thread is an absolute ace at finding (creating, I’d argue) every rough part of the texture of my wooden needles, wedging right in, and calling itself at home. I even tried switching between metal and wooden needles to try to deal with your attitude. What did those poor DPNS ever do to you?

And what the heck is up with your fibers? That black thread deal is 10000% not fun to knit with and completely inflexible. Your silky soft “halo” (you’re not fooling me with that halo crap) twists up and sticks to itself whenever convenient. Complete layers of you peel right off the skein and turn into birds nests. We can forget about trying to wind you into a little cake, my yarn-winder is brand new and doesn’t deserve your mess.

Worst thing is, you were beautiful at the LYS and still are! Your colors are gorgeous. I even catch my jaw sometimes when the light hits those carried over stitches on the pattern and your hues shine. But I should have known better than to trust you so easily. I should have chased a wifi hot-spot to find reviews on Ravelry before tilling in. The knitters all warned me about you, but I found out far too late.

Your reign of terror is over. I’m sentencing you to the shelf until I can muster the patience to deal with your shenanigans.

P.S. Don’t let me catch you felting with the other skeins. I’ll know.

Dearest Rhubarb Show-offs,

I’m so sorry for having such a short fuse with you, I really am! I should have had more faith in your design. You’re brilliantly made. What small amount of trepidation I felt for your absolutely beautiful and  unfamiliar heel construction was amplified and misguided by the frustration I felt while working with that awful yarn (by the way, we’re not speaking right now, thought you should know).

I’m not mad at you anymore..but I think I’ll need some space. I think I should see other knits for a while. Like a plain stockinette sock or two. Just something carefree and easy, y’know? But don’t worry. They’ve got nothing on what we have for each other. I promise. ♥

Happy 2nd Birthday, Bapsicrafts!

In these two years I've knit 34427 meters of yarn(according to knitmeter), made 98 sales that are warming lives and homes as we speak, followed nearly a hundred knitting blogs, interacted with and befriended many fellow crafters, craft-lovers, and small business owners. It's been a joy so far and I hope for many more days of learning, growing, sharing, and (of course) knitting!

To celebrate these fun two years of crafting and selling handmade, I'm holding a sale until the 28th--you can get 15% off anything and everything in my shop with the code HBDBAPSICRAFTS. This will even include any custom orders or requests--I'll apply the discount to the quote when we talk about your vision.

Thanks so much, reader, for being here to make this worthwhile. I wouldn't have had so much fun without people just like you. :]

And in the spirit of signal-boosting, I'd like to share some things I've enjoyed while browsing my feeds--

Jenna started blogging at hardknitlife just last month but has been doing a very entertaining job of it so far. Give her a read! Sandra Singh is currently holding a giveaway for her Sieden Prairie Cowl--ready to knit with 4 skeins of Sandra Singh 1 Ply Merino Worsted in your color scheme of choice. Enter for your chance to win it!

Susan bound off a pair of ombré socks with yarn spun KnitSpinFarm's batts. I wish I could spin--those socks are just divine.  And Wendy of Wendy Knits is currently working on the sample for her Mystery Summer Shawl KAL! Watch that space--it's bound to be a great knit, all of her work is beautiful. :]

loop

Just days before having to board my flight back home, I was determined to visit London and find Loop, the gorgeous LYS I’ve heard just too much about on Ravelry. We bought our London Underground day passes (which I highly recommend if, like us, you’re prone to getting a little lost), and checked every map on the way to make sure we were on the right track to Camden Passage.

And there it was! We picked the right day to randomly bus to London, as it was International Knit in Public Day, giving me 10% off my yarn purchase (which meant I really had to make my souvenir purchase)! You’ll find whenever I make the time to upload the rest of the London trip photos, that other neat events coincided on this day too, there was a lot to see and do!

I just don’t know what it is with the rain and finding yarn shops— Jason and I were wet from the brief shower while walking the small streets of the passage, so walking into this nice warm shop felt wonderful. I’m proud of Jason for being such a great sport about it, and had no blame to place on him for dozing off a little in this warm peaceful little yarn shelter. :]

I had the chance to fondle even more yarns I only read about on Ravelry. Skein felt like a dream. And BT’s Shelter has got to be the fluffiest, most airy worsted wool I’ve ever handled.

It was tough to keep my suitcase capacity front-of-mind, but I made my stash-addition choice. Two balls of Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball in Domino and River Bed. Domino will become some nice socks for Jason, and the other ones for me. :] I'm a little against keeping much of a stash, especially after having gotten new yarn from Ippikin just a few weeks ago, but as long as these become socks by the end of the summer it'll be okay I think! A little stash should be fine anyway.

Before leaving for California I casted on Anne Campbell's Show-off Stranded Socks with that Regia Hand-Dye effect yarn I bought from Ippikin. Unfortunately they didn't grow much as they would have, since I decided against risking confiscation at the airport, but they're steadily growing now that I'm home! I've had the pattern sitting in my queue for a while, waiting for the right skein. The pattern is tedious for me, but easy to understand and to remember (just simple yarn-overs and pulling them over stitches). I also have mixed feelings about how fun the new heel design's going to be, but the gorgeous look of the socks have been keeping me going. :] I'm looking forward to having these on my feet.

If you remember my Botticelli socks--I finished them in just two days! Problem is, I think I worked too many gusset rows, leaving the heel much too wide and saggy, and the foot much too long for me. The plan today was to frog, rewind and just make some regular heel flap nilla socks, but the yarn winder's busted AND I think I might have left one of the finished socks in England. They will have to wait. For now, I'll enjoy my growing souvenir WIPs and the hot cali weather. With time I'll be a tourist in my own town and visit some more LYS's (and make more stash acquisitions to share with you all--I'm thinking sweaters in the near future.)

Some unrelated but wonderful news--I had an unexpected but very thoughtful package from my older sister waiting for me here in Cali! A Knitter's Pride size 9 circular needle, and a skein of this very soft baby Llama yarn by Mirasol Peru. I hear the Knitter's Pride yarn is very similar in quality to Knitpicks Harmony needles, because of the same manufacturer (?), so I'm looking forward to using them. The yarn itself is just gorgeous. It looks like the perfect yardage for a nice pair of little wristwarmers, but I think they'll be better suited to a nice slouchy beanie like Opus Spicatum. I'll keep an eye out for another skein of this lovely yarn. 1000% excited to knit with this once my sock projects (and Bapsicrafts pieces) are bound off.