New soap and body product classes

Joan Morais, a certified aromatherapist and instructor, is teaching some great classes this year!

Here’s just a sampling:

NATURAL SKIN & BODY CARE PRODUCT MAKING COURSE
JULY 23, 24, 25, 2009 Last one for 2009!
Thurs, Fri, & Sat, 9:30am-4:30pm
Courtyard Marriott, Fairfield, CA

Learn how to make body lotion, anti-oxidant facial cream, anti-wrinkle eye balm, purifying facial toner, facial cleansing milk, and more.

NATURAL SOAP MAKING COURSE
AUGUST 9 & 10, 2009
Sun & Mon 9:30am-5:30pm
Courtyard Marriott, Fairfield, CA

Learn how to make cold process soap, goats milk soap, marbled soap, honey, oats, herbal tea soap, shea butter soap, moisturzing complexion soap, hand milled, rebatched soap, shampoo bar, and even a pet shampoo bar and more!

NATURAL SKIN & BODY CARE PRODUCT MAKING COURSE -intermediate level
OCTOBER 16, 17 & 18, 2009
Fri, Sat, & Sun, 9:30am-4:30pm
Courtyard Marriott, Fairfield, CA

This course is for those who have taken the beginner level course and will teach more advanced techniques to lotion maing and aromatherapy, as well as perfumes, body oil, massage oil, and deoderants.

Glow: Create Your Own Aromatherapeutic Skin Care Products and Candles
OCTOBER 25, 26, & 27, 2009
Kripalu Center for yoga & health
Stockbridge, Massachussetts

Please visit her website for more detailed class descriptions and registration info.

Looking for a herbal shampoo? Check out our DIY recipe for making your own natural herbal shampoo with basic supplies. We also have a herbal conditioner recipe too. Home-made shampoos and conditioners are a great way to strip back to basics and control what herbs you are putting into your hair shampoo and products. Store-bought herbal shampoo contains lots of numbers and ingredients that as the consumer we know very little about.

For years now Berroco has been releasing a tiny set of Christmas ornament knitting patterns, often modeled on human-sized clothes, called Minutia. The ones for this year haven’t come out yet, but somehow I missed last year’s so I wanted to share them, as well as a fun little twist they offered.

The general 2025 Minutia patterns include a circular yoke sweater, a two-color stocking and a ribbed earflap hat. They’re super cute and perfect for using little (or should I say minute?) amounts of yarn left over from other projects. Make them in Christmas colors or whatever you have on hand. Even if you don’t have exactly the same yarn weight, you can still make these cute additions to your holiday decor.

But what really caught my eye while I was on the Berocco site was the Team Colors Minutia, which are actually different patterns so I’m not even sure when they were released, but they are definitely worth talking about.

These patterns include a little raglan sweater with stripes and a stocking cap with contrasting pom pom.

They call for sport weight yarn, but again you could use sock or DK if that’s what you have in the right colors. And here the right colors are important because you’re stitching your team colors.

Or anyone else’s team colors.

I immediately thought that this would be an amazing holiday gift for someone who you never know what to get but who also happens to like sports. Or has gone to a university that has colors.

Another option would be to leave off the stripes and add a number in duplicate stitch if you or the person you’re knitting for has a favorite player. Or stitch a letter or a tiny version of the team logo on the front. There are lots of options!

If you make these, I’d love to hear what you did with them!

[Photo: Berroco]

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