Eight Acres

Have you heard of a soap saver?  I hadn't until recently.  A friend mentioned to me that she was putting the small bits of soap in a sock and that I should think about crocheting a little bag instead.  And then they keep popping up on social media, so I thought I would give it a go.  Am I the only one who hoards the little end bit of soaps that are too small to use?  I have a bit of a collection of them.  So I whipped up a little soap saver sack and filled it up with a few odd soap ends and I'm very pleased with the results.  If you can do basic crochet, they are very easy to make, but you can also knit or sew a simple soap saver (or last resort - use an old sock!). Crochet soap saver pattern I used cotton yarn from the local market.  You could use any yarn.  I liked cotton as it can be composted (wool, hemp, bamboo or sisal would also be compostable). Chain 6, turn Chain 1 and single crochet back along the chain Don't turn, but k...

I only learnt to crochet a couple of years ago, and last winter I really wanted to improve my crochet skills to the point where it was an unconscious movement rather than a very concious and laboured effort.  The best way to do that (possibly the only way) is repetition, so it made sense to make something large.  I decided to make a rug. As I was intending this for practice, I didn't know how it would turn out and I didn't want to buy new yarn in case I wasted it, so I decided to use some of the yarn I had been hoarding wisely buying from the markets.  As I didn't really known how much yarn I had and how much rug I wanted to make, it was difficult to find a pattern to use. I didn't want to make multiple granny squares that would have to be joined together later (I can picture a stash of squares waiting to be joined).  I also didn't want to make one of the pretty patterns that require you to decide the length of one end of the rug and work backwards and f...