Knittin' and Lovin' It

Vinegar, Herbs, & Soft Clothes....

...Oh My!!

When I swapped to the 7th Generation laundry detergent I stopped using the rest of my laundry products with the exception of my favorite Spray 'N Wash Dual Power liquid stain remover. With two kids there's no way I'm going without the stain remover. You find me some easy to use all natural products that work as well as my Spray 'N Wash and I'll swap. But I digress, back to the what I was talking about. I stopped using Clorox 2, fabric softener, dryer sheets and bleach. So far the 7th Gen detergent has worked fairly well at keeping static cling at bay but I've been reading that white vinegar makes a great fabric softener.

I decided I'd give the vinegar a try. The whole point to going green was to start eliminating chemicals in our life and become more environmentally friendly. The vinegar works great and the smell really does go away between the rinse and dryer. It has hardly any smell after the rinse cycle and after you dry your clothes there is no smell at all.

Now my cloths have no scent so I decided to make my own dryer packets out of cotton and lavender.

I based mine off this post but I used cotton instead of muslin or cheese cloth. The cotton works just as good and is super easy to get a hold of. I bought a half yard of three different colors from Wal*Mart and it cost me a little over $4. Now a half yard of cotton will get you 6-9 little pouches....depending on how big you make them. You squeeze the bag, then throw it in the dryer with your wet clothes and it will leave them smelling nice when they are done drying. I recommend making several bags to rotate through so you aren't using the same bag over and over again. I have three but will probably make a few more since I do quite a bit of laundry.

Here's what I did. Instead of making 2 squares to sew together I cut one stripe that was 11 inches long and 5.5 inches wide. I then folded the cloth in half with the wrong side facing out with the folded portion as the bottom of your pouch. Take your sewing machine and sew both sides leaving the top open. I then turned the pouch in side right and filled it with 1-2 ounces of your favorite herbs. I used lavender but there are plenty of other dried herbs you can use. We prefer lavender and eucalyptus but roses and chamomile would be nice too. After you get it filled, turned the corners in on both sides and fold a couple times like you're folding a paper bag. Zip over the top of the fold from end to end with your sewing machine to seal the top. When the bag is no longer producing much of a smell rip the seams out, crush up the herbs and toss them on your carpet to sit for a few before vacuuming up. Refill the bag and resew the top.

If you're looking for bulk herbs I get mine from Starwest Botanicals. They have tons of organic herbs. Some are sold in 4oz packets and some are sold in 1lb bags. They have fast shipping and their products are excellent.

If there is enough interest I will put up a step by step photo filled post on how I made my dryer bags. Let me know if you're interested.

On the growing side of things, our tomatoes are doing wonderful.

Aren't they getting huge! We bought these great tomato support things at Ace Hardware. They're called Ultomato. They made a tremendous difference on how our plants were growing. The limbs were starting to sag really bad and we were afraid the weight was going to cause some of the limbs to snap.

 

There are blooms all over and a few of them are starting to form tomatoes. I have a feeling we're going to have more then enough tomatoes to share with our neighbors. I can't wait to have some fresh tomatoes from my own plants. Next year I'm planning on a small herb garden to go with the tomatoes. There's nothing better then fresh herbs from your garden to spice up your foods.

We've been working on moving to more foods that are organic. The more chemicals I can cut out of my kids lives the better. We don't mind if our grocery bill goes up because we are gaining the benefits of chemical free foods. I know it sounds crazy but the organic carrots we bought the other day tasted different the the carrots we normally buy. If you haven't tried organic milk you need to. Its super smooth and very yummy. For me to say milk is yummy is quite a thing because I hate milk. I can drink the organic milk because it doesn't have a funky taste. We've get Horizon and Organic Valley. Normally we pick up Organic Valley because it's a little cheaper but the commissary doesn't always have it in stock when we need it so we buy Horizon. They are both great brands. Getting the organic milk is a lot more then what we are paying for the regular milk but I think it's worth it. A regular gallon of milk on base costs around $3....give or take about 10-15 cents. A half gallon of organic milk runs around $2.60. To us the pros outweigh the cons so we pay a little more.

I'll be back in a few days with a knitting post!

More Green Products

I want to start this post off by saying that I do not work for 7th Generation nor do they compensate me in any way for these blog posts. Their products are easy for me to get and I want to share my experiences with anyone who is interested. So anonymous emailer, stick your finger up your left nostril and leave me alone! I won't go into details but I received an anonymous email about my green posts and it was lets just say not nice. Basically I was accused of posting about these products because I was getting paid to. The only thing that irritated me about the email was the person didn't have the guts to sign their name to the email. If you're going to bad mouth me you can at least have the guts to put your name down in the email. If I find a product that sucks you all will be the first to know about it. I don't sugar coat things and I also have no problem if some one posts a comment or sends an email saying that they don't believe me or hate the products I'm talking about. I'm a big girl and can handle criticism. I am mature enough to know that not everyone is going to agree with me and my opinions. Nuff said!

I left off in my last post with the liquid dish soap. It wowed me when I first used it and it's still wowing me. My hands have never looked so good. They have been rash free since I started using the soap. This is definitely a product I will continue to use. If you have sensitive hands I highly recommend this product.

I've been using the All Purpose Cleaner and the Dishwasher detergent. Both of these products I have are free and clear although the All Purpose Cleaner comes in a Green Mandarin & leaf scent. It's just not available in my area. If you want a scented dishwasher detergent you'll have to get the gel because the powder only comes in Free & Clear. I'm going to start out with the All Purpose Cleaner first.

I'm comparing the 7th Generation All Purpose Cleaner to Formula 409 since 409 is what I normally use. The 7th Gen cleaner holds up great to 409. They both cut grease very well but there are few differences I've found. The first is that 409 is very hard on my hands. After using it my hands rash out and hurt. The 7th Gen cleaner didn't bother my hands at all. The 7th Gen cleaner got the grease off my stove and range hood with less scrubbing. The other thing I noticed is that the 7th Gen cleaner did better cleaning up sticky residue left from stickers. You won't believe the stuff they stick stickers on now a days. I found that spraying the cleaner on a rag and rubbing on the resin (a few times depending on how much resin was left behind after the sticker was removed) took it right off. This stuff works better then most of the goo removers I've tried that are suppose to work like magic....(insert sarcasm) sure they do! I use it mostly on the stove and counters around the stove to cut the grease. It works great in the microwave too. We all know how fun the microwave can be to clean up. We Shawn also mopped the floors with the 7th Gen cleaner. It did a really good job cleaning up the floors but honestly my floors never get very dirty. The girls aren't allowed to run around the house with food and I wipe up spills in the kitchen right away so truthfully hot water would make my floors look clean. I do believe that it would work great on really messy floors too. The thing I liked most about mopping with this cleaner was that I didn't have to go back over the floors with water to rinse and it didn't leave my floors feeling sticky. I have linoleum floors so this stuff worked great, however it states that this product is not for use on wood floors.

The other product that we are trying out is 7th Generations Powder Dishwasher Detergent. I'm comparing it with the last two dishwasher detergents I've used: Cascade 2in1 ActionPacs and the Palmolive Eco+. Lets first start off by saying that the Palmolive Eco+ sucks!!! It leaves a nasty film on your dishes, specially plastics. So I had to go back and wipe all the dishes down with a clean cloth to get the film off. Ah, I don't know about you all but the less work I have to do in the kitchen the better my life is. I give it a -10 for usability. Don't waste your money on it.

The Cascade works great. The only drawbacks are that it's not eco friendly and you can't pick them up with wet hands because the water melts the protective gel holding everything together....don't ask me how I know this....gotta learn things the hard way. The Cascade cuts the grease and makes my dishes clean and shiny. I'm wanting an eco friendly product to wash my dishes thus the reason I picked the Palmolive up. Now it's not 100% eco friendly but it's phosphate free so I thought I'd try it out. Yup it stinks, not getting it again. Thankfully Alberstsons is now starting to stock some of the 7th Generations products and they were stocking the dishwasher detergent the other day when Shawn was there so he picked some up. This is the first time I've used a plain powdered dishwasher detergent in years. We've been buying gel packs for several years now and before that we used gel.

The 7th Gen detergent is much more comparable to the Cascade that I was using. They both cleaned the dishes very well and left all of the dishes shiny. (Side note: I still use Jet Dry in my dishwasher). When the Jet Dry runs out I'm going to try the 7th Gen detergent to see how it does without the Jet Dry. There was no nasty film on the dishes. I'll post about my findings of how the 7th Gen detergent works after the Jet Dry is used up. We just put some in a week or so ago so it will be awhile before it's empty. It normally last about a month.

We are now up to 6 eco friendly products: Blue Eucalyptus & Lavender Landry Soap, Lavender & Floral Mint dish washing soap, Free & Clear All Purpose Cleaner, Free & Clear Dishwasher Powder, 100% recycled TP (100% recycled paper), and 100% recycled paper towels (also made out of 100% recycled paper). The toilet paper and paper towels cost a little bit more but they are made with recycled paper instead of having to chop down trees to make it. The TP isn't as super soft as Charmin but it's not as rough as government issue TP. If you've never used government TP count your blessings and hope you never do. That stuff still gives me nightmares **shudder**. The 7th gen TP is a happy medium between really soft and horribly rough. We don't use paper plates anymore and a roll of paper towels last us forever because I use bar mops & dish rags to clean up most messes. Sams Club and Costco both sell bar mops in a big pack. They work great for drying and for cleaning up messes. I can see why bartenders use them. I think I paid about $8 for 20-25 bar mops....very cheap.

I'll leave you with a shot of the new tree they planted in my back yard.

It's a Patmore Ash. It's a nice size tree but it still has lots more growing to do. I'll take pics again later this year.

Green Post

This post is about the 7th Generation products I've been trying. I'll go ahead and apologize to all of you who are here for the knitting content. I'll have a knitting post tomorrow.

I'm almost through the first bottle of 7th Generations Natural 2x Concentrate Laundry Detergent (Eucalyptus & Lavender). They also make a detergent for delicates and a baby detergent.

All in all I'm really impressed with this laundry soap. It's gotten out every type of stain my kids have thrown at it so far. Most of the time I had to do a little pre-treating but I had to do that with other laundry soaps I've used so that isn't a problem. The stains so far have been ground in dirt, chocolate, vegetable soup (Campbell's), Italian salad dressing, & blood. The only one I had a problem with was the vegetable soup stain which can be a tough stain to get out even with special pre-treaters.

I wanted to see how this laundry detergent held up when I didn't use fabric softener or dryer sheets so I did a few loads without the additional products. The only load that showed any static after drying was Bree's load which contains fleece jammies that are full of static even with dryer sheets. The clothes all came out soft like I'd used fabric softener. I liked it so much I've cut fabric softener and dryer sheets out of my laundry routine and only use the laundry detergent.

If you're looking for a laundry detergent that is hard working, hypo-allergenic, and HE compatible this may be the detergent for you. However if you want a laundry detergent that leaves a perfume smell on your clothing you won't find it with this detergent. This doesn't bother me since perfumey detergents tend to give the girls rashes. If I want to smell nice I will use lotions & perfumes.

The other product I've been using is the 7th Generation Dishwashing Soap. We bought the Lavender Floral & Mint scent. It's not an overpowering smell, very nice and light. There is one other scent and a free & clear version. We bought this soap at our local Target and the price was comparable to all the other name brand dish soaps.

First off, if your hands rash and dry out from using dish soaps you need to buy this soap. Dish soaps kill my hands. They dry out bad and I always seem to get a rash around my wrists. I've been using the 7th Generation soap for about 2 weeks now and there isn't a hint of dry skin or rash on my wrists.

I normally use Dawn dish soap because it's the best one I've found for cutting grease. This soap beats Dawn. I've never had plastic bowls that squeaky clean with so little effort. I'm not using anymore of the 7th Generation then I did using Dawn. I can wash a dish drainer full of dishes with a small squirt of soap.

Next up will probably be the dishwasher soap and all purpose cleaner.

FYI, if you do a "Where to Buy" search and it doesn't pull up any stores in your town it doesn't mean there aren't any stores in your area. I did a search and it didn't pull up anything for Great Falls, MT but I've found their products in the base commissary and Target. I still need to check out Smiths and Albertsons. You can go Here to find a list of supermarkets that carry 7th Generation products.

I found an interesting site in my searching the other day. It's called The Daily Green. It has some great info and links.

FO Report

As if Nintendo hasn't come up with enough stuff to entice me into buying a Wii....not that I've managed to get one yet. Wii's new game Wii Fit is the clincher for me. They turn exercise into a fun game. Must-Buy-Wii! I'm actually contemplating destashing some yarn to pay for said Wii, that's how bad I want one.

I finished the second Tidepool Rib Sock the other day.


I think they came out pretty good. I love how fast I can knit a pair of socks in the mediumweight Socks That Rock. I have more then enough left to knit a pair for Bree. I may have enough to knit a pair of ankle socks for Kaity. The stripes are matched up fairly well. It only took me ripping the toe out twice before I finally got the sock to behave. If I was smart I would have matched the two skeins of yarn or better yet, knit them both at the same time. They're close enough for me. I think I'll be getting more STR for winter boot socks.

I'm still working on the Everlasting Bagstopper...sorry no pics this time. I hope to have it done before the end of the weekend. The handles didn't work quite the way I had planned so I ripped back to the bag and bound off the stitches. I'm knitting both straps at the same time in garter stitch and will use my sewing match to stitch them onto the bag. I think that sewing the handles on will give them more strength.

We took Bree to the doc and everything checked out. She's not refluxing badly enough for it to show in the tests but the doc said that doesn't mean she isn't refluxing every now and then. The tests also show that there are no blockages so it appears we are in the clear. They did take blood to check her thyroid levels again.

I have my new sock project picked out. I'm going to use the Lorna's Laces sock yarn that I won from Knittech's blog contest to knit the Beaded Swirls Socks from HeartStrings FiberArts. Awhile back I bought some beads to make stitch markers and that didn't work out so I'm going to use the beads on the socks. I'll start those as soon as I've made some more progress on my TLE Swap Pals socks.

Going Green

No I'm not talking about turning into Kermit the Frog. I'm talking about being more environmentally friendly. We've been thinking about it for awhile now and have started taking steps toward becoming a more green household.

All those Wal*Mart commercials have got me thinking about what I can do to help the environment. No I'm not going to be shopping more at Wally World which I know was their aim but it has got me taking steps to change the way we do things.

We have taken the obvious steps like buying an HE washer and an energy star compliant dryer. Plus I wash all my laundry in cold water. We swapped out all the old light bulbs with more energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs. No I don't pay for electricity because I live in military housing but that still doesn't give me the right to waste energy. We recycle everything that we can including plastics which they don't pick up at the curb, we have to haul them to the recycling center. Is it a hassle? Yes, but it's better then throwing it away.

Now on to our next step which is replacing our current household cleaning products with more environmentally friendly products. We've decided to go with 7th Generations products. They have a wonderful selection of products and they are fairly easy to get a hold of. Our commissary on base carries some stuff. Plus Albertsons, Smiths, and Walgreens are suppose to carry their products.....I still need to check these stores. We got around 12 inches of snow so I'm trying not to go out as much as possible. When it snows here the stupid people come out. It's like they've forgotten how to drive in snow. But I digress....add in that Amazon carries 7th Generations products in bulk and it qualifies for Super Saver shipping.

So first up for us was to try is the laundry detergent. We buy liquid but they also make a powder. It hypo-allergenic and comes in Free and Clear or Eucalyptus Lavender. We got the Eucalyptus Lavender which doesn't seem to bother Bree's sensitive skin. I've been running some tests and so far it's done very well. It's gotten the dirt out of all of Kaity's clothes without having to pre-treat. Left the clothes with a light clean smell and the biggest bonus no static cling at all. I didn't use fabric softener and I didn't use dryer sheets and there was no static at all and the clothes were soft. For all you military families: This laundry detergent does not contain optical brighteners which means its safe to use on ABUs.

Since the laundry detergent was a hit we will be trying other products. Our household just wants to do their part. Shawn is all for this as much as me. I'll try not to flood the blog with tons of "Green" posts. Let me know if you're interested in hearing more about the products we try and I'd love to hear about any green tips you may have. Leave a comment or send me an email!

More knitting content tomorrow! I'm just about done with the first sock I started the other day.