Bringing up this old thread to tell about my slow, painful progress towards soap making.

About two weeks ago, I got up the nerve to go to our little, locally owned hardware store, Grimble's.  Isn't that the best name?  It reminds me of something out of "Harry Potter".  Anyway, I asked the guy there if he had lye, like they use for soap making. He immediately went to the little store of  cleaning chemicals they keep there (they have things there that you don't find in Wal-Mart, polishes and heavy duty glass cleaners and such like.  Oh and corks, any size real bottle cork you'd want, they keep them in candy jars. Don't know why that fascinates me, it just does.) and grabbed a plastic jar of "Rooto" off the shelf.  Now, this tells me that either he is taking an educated guess and just trying to sell me something or he really knows what I want because there are soapers around. Other people… like me… who need to learn to make soap!

I figured it was probably the real stuff 'cause I'd heard it mentioned here. So I brought it home and immediately… set it on my shelf where it will remain for awhile longer. I'm still doing the baby step thing. But…but…

My sister's church has this wonderful little country fair sort of thing they put on every year. It's a little historical thing with a long story attached to it that I'd love to tell but this post is already over long. Anyway, we went and there was a lady that makes soap there. I had met her last year but wasn't even this baby step toward making soap.  I missed the part where she put in the lye, that I wanted to see.

But she let me stir until it came to trace. Not all the time. We took turns. She makes her soap primitive style, as a matter of fact when I first went up, the fat, (she was using Crisco and lard) was still melting over a wood fire. I told you she did things primative. And no stick blender.  We stirred with a wooden spoon. She did make me wear rubber gloves but that was about it.  And we stirred and stirred and stirred until I actually saw what trace looks like. It helps a great deal to have some idea what I'm looking for.

Now, her's didn't look as thick as the pictures I see on here. She made her's with milk, and a wooden spoon. Does the stick blender make it thicker, quicker?  Try saying that three times real fast.  I don't think she used goat's milk this time. She has in the past. We were making next years batch of give away soap. Yes, well, for a penny you get to watch (or help) with the demonstration and get a decent size bar of goat's milk soap. Oh, there is more to this story… wish I'd taken pictures. But whole point of this is …I know what trace looks like! And I'm excited.

It sounds like a lot of fun, mamaleigh, and I really want to try it but I am still "skeered", mostly about the lye, which is why I wish I'd seen that part of the demonstration, but this is such an informal little thing with stuff going on all over the place that I wandered off and didn't get back in time.

I'm all set with the crock pot thing because mine is an older one that has a crock inset that comes out. My ever thinking husband picked up just the crock part at a Salvation Army thrift store, so we have an extra. I'm still debating if I want to dedicate one crock just to soap making though because I have been known to have them both filled at the same time. Especially in this "I don't want to cook" humidity we've been having here.

The good news is, is that DH is interested in this now also. So he'll get the necessary stuff and nag me until I get going. The lady at the little church thing didn't seem to think I needed much just to get started, then if I wanted to get fancier later on, I could add more equipment.

Now, all I really have to do is chase the neighbor kids out of the back yard some day so I can do that scary, scary lye part.

Yes lye can burn and it will hurt like the dickens! I had a small amount splatter on my arms and I have also had it splatter on to my face. Thankfully I was instant about getting the vinegar and water on it before it could do any damage. I have noticed that when I do a 1lb batch it splatters ALOT. If I do a 2 or more its fine, the stick blender cant splatter it.