Scented Palm Wax Candle Experiment

Ok, I think palm wax might be my favorite wax yet, which is too bad because it costs almost twice as much as paraffin or soy.

Either that or I’m just getting better at this. I didn’t add any additives, the candles burn well and they’re the strongest smelling candles I have made.

This is “feather” palm wax which means it makes a feathered pattern when it hardens. It’s beautiful and sparkly and i love the effect. If you’re looking for a smooth shiny one tone color you might not like the feathered mottled look.

The votives and the smaller pillar were all made with one pound of palm wax, 2 tablespoons (or 30 ml) of lavender essential oil, half a blue dye chip and half a red.

I was going for purple but it turned out pink. Next time i will throw a whole blue chip in there.

I also made a large pillar (3 x 6 inch) with fresh cut flowers scented oil. This is not an essential oil but it truly smells like fresh cut flowers. I’m glad I made a big one because I don’t want to raid my garden anymore.

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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