How To Make Candles At Home

Candles are a great way to add warmth and ambiance to any space. However, store-bought candles can be quite expensive, and some people are allergic to the chemicals used in many commercial candles. The good news is that you can easily make your own candles at home using natural ingredients and scents. Not only is it cost-effective, but it’s also a fun and creative activity that you can do with friends and family.

If you’re new to candle making, it can seem a little daunting at first. But with a few basic supplies and some simple instructions, you can make candles that look and smell amazing. All you need is some wax, a wick, a melting pot, and some essential oils or fragrance oils to add scent.

There are different types of wax that you can use for candle making, including soy wax, beeswax, and paraffin wax. Soy wax is a popular choice because it’s eco-friendly, biodegradable, and burns cleanly. Beeswax is another natural option that has a lovely honey scent and a beautiful golden color. Paraffin wax is the most common wax used in commercial candles but may contain harmful chemicals.

When it comes to choosing a scent for your candles, the options are endless. You can use essential oils, fragrance oils, or a combination of both. Essential oils are natural and have therapeutic benefits, while fragrance oils come in a variety of scents and are synthetic.

The process of making candles involves melting the wax in a double boiler, adding the scent, pouring the wax into a container, and adding the wick. Once the wax has cooled and solidified, you can trim the wick and enjoy your beautiful homemade candle.

Overall, making your own candles is a rewarding and enjoyable experience. Not only do you get to customize the scent and appearance of your candles, but you also get the satisfaction of knowing that you created something with your own hands. With a little bit of practice, you’ll be making candles that are just as good (if not better!) than store-bought ones.

this article shows you how to get started in the art of DIY candle making.

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When I knit socks (which sadly I have not done in a while; need to get a new pair on the needles soon!) I generally stick to pretty simple designs and colorwork that isn’t all that detailed.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a fancy sock, I’m also just pretty lazy and I figure a project worked on size 0 or 1 US needles is going to take a long time even without the added work of intricate colorwork, so why make it more complicated?

But there are definitely socks out there I’d be willing to make an exception for, and I think Tangled Bliss by Annette Schleicher may just be one of them.

If you can’t tell from looking, this is decidedly an advanced knitting pattern. There’s brioche for the cuffs, complex looking colorwork done with the ladderback jacquard technique, multiple charts, and colors changing everywhere.

There are links to tutorials for all the special skills in the pattern, but still it would help to have a handle on these concepts before you get started.

The pattern uses three colors of light fingering weight yarn at a whopping 31 stitches per 4 inches/10 cm (that’s 7.75 stitches per inch/2.5 cm).

Would you believe me if I told you that this pattern was designed for a speed knitting contest? Speed would be the last thing on my mind.

But again, I think all the work for these fancy socks would be worth it. I love hoe the colorwork looks like an old tile floor, and think of the bragging rights when you tell people you made them yourself. (Though of course you did; have you ever seen store-bought socks that look anything like this?)

Best of all, this pattern is available for free on Ravelry, so there’s no reason not to give it a try if you’ve got the skills. If you do, I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Annette Schleicher]

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