Laundry time

I have been working on greening my laundry process.  People don't realize how much bad stuff is put in to laundry detergents, softeners, and dryer sheets.  I was using eco-friendly detergents for a while, but found out most of those are just green washed and are more expensive.  This led me to my discovery of soap nuts.  I found a great deal on them using babyhalfoff.com.  Soap nuts are gaining in popularity and for good reason.  Such a simple product that is environmentally friendly and works great.  It doubles as a fabric softener as well, and is great for sensitive skin. You just throw 4-5 of the soap nuts in to a little sack, and throw it in to your washer.  Keep it in through the entire wash cycle and then pull it out when you switch it to the dryer.  The only inconvenience I have found is sometimes you can't find the bag and end up drying it as well, but from that doesn't do any harm to your laundry or the nuts.  You can use the same nuts 10+ times.  No plastic cartons, just a small box for packaging.  

A simple eco-friendly DIY job to help you with your laundry is wool dryer balls.  Making your own dryer balls can save you time and money.  Wool dryer balls help to reduce your laundry drying time (saving on energy bills) and helps to remove static.  Making your own balls is also cheaper than purchasing them already made, and it doesn't take up a lot of your time.  It is important to pick up a virgin wool that is good for felting.  Merino wools don't work as well, because they don't shrink up like virgin wool.  So far I have 3 balls, and from my research 4-6 is recommended.  I think I am going to have to make a few extra, because so far Cyrus has used the balls as a toy more than our dryer has gotten to use them.  If you already knit or crochet, you probably already have the supplies around you need and wool yarn scraps work just great for the project.

I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the pictures.  I need to buy a better camera, as my old one is becoming pretty obsolete.

To make your dryer balls, start out by wrapping the yarn around two of your fingers a few times, until you have about a half inch thickness. 

Then remove the yarn from your fingertips and wrap in the other direction. 

Keep on wrapping, changing directions after every few wraps to form your ball

Keep on wrapping the yarn until it is about 5 inches in diameter.

Using a yarn needle or crochet hook, weave the yarn end in to the already wrapped yarn. 

Place the ball in to an old stocking or sock and repeat the process so that you can have several balls made at the same time.  Use some non wool yarn tie in between each ball to separate them.

Now comes the felting part.  The easiest method to use is to throw the stocking with all of your dryer balls in to the washer in hot wash load.  Run the stocking with balls through a few times, so it has plenty of agitation and will shrink up a bit.

If you would like to scent your dryer balls, you could drop a few drops of essential oil of your choice on each dryer ball before sticking them in the dryer.  Keep them in the stocking for the first round to let the wool tighten up a little more still.  Other wise your yarn may unwind and leave you with a big knot to untangle your laundry from.

Free cloth diaper patterns

I always enjoy a good free pattern and thought I would share with you some of the free patterns that I have found for cloth diapers:

Rita Rump Pocket Diaper pattern It is a great and easy pattern with instructions and details alterations you can make to the diaper to make it work for your needs and desires.  If you are on a really tight budget, you could make about 2-3 dozen diapers for under $40, using cotton flannel and gerber prefolds.  Just a warning though, as I have mentioned in a previous post, as much as your diapers are washed, they will deteriorate quickly.

 Celtic Cloths offers a free Medium size diaper, and sells other sizes.  They also have a few other patterns that you might find useful available for free.  I haven't tried any of them personally, but they look very well done.

Ottobre designs has a free pattern, but the sizing is off.  Their newborn diaper fits my 24 pound son a little big.  It has a checking square on the pattern, but my 2 inches matched theirs and it is really big. 

Getting crafty

I have finished the color wheel quilt, adding bias tape all around the edges.  It is looking a little wrinkled in this picture, since my son hates to put the quilt down.  He carries it everywhere with him.

I have also been working on cloth diapers recently.  I picked up some hemp/cotton fleece from The Hemp Traders and altered a pattern I found online.  Making your own cloth diapers is easy, even for the novice sewer.  There are dozens of tutorials online to show you step by step what you need to do.  The first ones I made, when I was pregnant, were made from flannel and stuffed with Gerber prefolds.  While very inexpensive to make, about $40 for 3 dozen, they deteriorated rather quickly.  Especially with having to be washed every other day.  The hemp diapers are more absorbent, no stuffing required, and will last longer.  In addition I bought a snap press and snaps, so I didn't have to worry about pinning my squirming son.  My husband is thrilled with them stating "they are just as easy as disposable diapers".

Mama craziness

I have to give props to all those mom bloggers out there.  Chasing around my now 15 month old son doesn't leave me much time to do crafts, let alone write a blog up.  Luckily my sone is starting to be a little more independent giving more time for both.  I have been working on a color wheel quilt recently based on a pattern I found on Joann.com  I didn't like the size on the pattern offered, so I enlarged the pattern and now have a crib sized quilt in process.

Let me just say that Cy is in love with this quilt despite it not being finished yet.  As I would lay it out in the various stages of putting it together, he would stand on top of it and I would point out the different colors.  He would then get down and point to the various colors and say the color I had just stated.  It has been a few weeks that I have been working on this project and now he will go up to the quilt on his own and try to guess the color that he is pointing at.  Sometimes he is right and sometimes not so much.  I am really looking forward to getting the binding done on it, so he can start using as he would like to, carrying it around the house everywhere.

Welcome to my new blog!

Let me start off by telling you a little bit about myself.  My name is Ivy and I am a new mother to an adorable currently 8 month old little boy named Cyrus.  I have been married about  ayear and a half, but my husband and I have been together for nearly 11 years.  I am a pretty strict vegetarian, but not quite able to commit to veganism.  Maybe someday.  I like working with my hands, I cook, bake, sew, knit, and I am always willing to try learning something new and crafty.  Currently I am a working mom, but that will soon be changing as I am getting laid off in less than a month.  We are trying to work things out so that I will be able to stay home with the baby, but we will see how that goes.

As a mother, I feel like I follow my natural instinct with my son.  I don't like to commit to a label, but I can relate closely to Attachment parenting.  I breast feed, carry my baby, and bed share.  People often say that Cyrus is unusally well behaved and happy and I believe that my parenting technique has contributed to his positive attitude.

In my blog, I will be posting recipes, crafts, ideas, and other experiences of motherhood.  I hope you will join me.

For those of you that our joining me, and would like your chance at winning a carrier of your own, here is a chance for you to win an Ergo carrier of your own:  http://www.breastfeedbabywearclothdiaper.com/7000-facebook-fan-babywearing-giveaway-celebration