Purple Soap

One of the projects at Camp Purple came direct from the Sheep and Wool Show. FELTED SOAP is sooooo easy, and the results such fun, it was a no-brainer to grab some simple supplies and make it one of the hands-on activities for the punks. And a few moms!
SUPPLIES: a bar of hard soap (not like Ivory, it will melt right away), kneehigh nylon, ziplock sandwich bag, and wool roving.

A cross-hatch of wool roving (purple, of course!) is laid down, the soap put in the middle of the nest, then gently wrapped with the wool. Strips and pieces of other colors of roving were added around the outside. Then the wrapped soap is inserted into the toe of a nylon knee-high, a knot tied to keep it there, and the package put into a ziplock sandwich bag. The bag is filled about half with COLD water, zipped securely closed, and then agitated, squeezed, kneaded and pummeled for about 20 minutes. This causes the wool to "felt", or compact.

The soap is removed from the bag and nylon, and put on a rack to dry.

Once dried, it can be used as any soap normally would - bathtub scrubby, or handwashing.

As the felted soap is used, the soap gradually becomes smaller, and the wool continues to felt and shrink. Eventually, you just have a piece of good-smelling felt! Depending on the soap you use...

A fun project - I see Christmas gifts!

A bonus of this project is, the punks LOVE to wash their hands, FREQUENTLY - which is not a bad thing for the impending cold/flu season...