Spinning induced austerity

How a simple hobby lead to a simpler life

"Does it save you money?" A question which invariably comes up when people find out I am a handspinner. As someone who uses a lot of yarn, it is logical to assume I would save money by making my own. "No," I chuckle, "it does not."

Angora goat: a luxury fiber I'd have never
otherwise tried outside of spinning.

Now, just as a brief aside, handspinning has brought me into contact with much higher quality material. I rarely purchased 100% wool yarns, but I do spin them quite frequently. The cost of fully prepped spinning fiber is very much in line with commercial yarns of similar fiber content and quality. So, while my costs have increased, the quality of my finished items has as well. Still, spinning is a hobby, and as such, it is done for enjoyment, not economy.

Supported spindling: my favorite way to spin.

I used to feel guilt over my spinning related expenses, due mainly, I suspect, to being a stay at home mom. Despite Darren's assurances otherwise, I tend to feel like I'm consuming without contributing whenever I spend money on myself. It was pretty pervasive until, one day, I saw a man flying a model airplane. It was a large styrofoam plane with a motor, which clearly brought him joy as he piloted it about. The scene woke me to the importance of hobbies and how we all need to spend time doing things simply because they make us happy. And at the end of the day, and this is not to knock the airplane guy, my hobby produced something, not just tangible, but functional.

Functionality: my first handspun socks.

Becoming more involved in spinning meant being drawn deeper into that world, which eventually led to fiber festivals and another round of guilt. When a post about homemade laundry soap came across my Facebook feed, it was a revelation. By significantly reducing household expenses, I could enjoy guilt-free fiber fun. It also solved another dilemma: the laundry detergent bottles piling up in the basement, awaiting a trip to the recycling center. I'd been feeling a little guilt over them as well. The soap recipe, made in reusable quart jars, killed both birds with one stone.

Another money saving technique came up as a direct result of spinning. While participating in an online group, chatter came up in the forum about a bread recipe, more accurately a process for bread making, which ended up being very simple to implement. In a previous post, I calculated making bread at homes saved us nearly $50 a month at a time when there was one fewer of us.

Grandma Dorothy's rye bread. It is a large batch
recipe, so I only make it for special occasions.

While I fell out of the laundry soap habit, we have been making bread ever since. With the pattern established, it was easier to venture into making other things from scratch, such as pizza (from the bread dough, which is always on hand), pasta, and most recently, tortillas.

It wasn't until Darren was laid off from his job again I was motivated enough to stick with making laundry soap. I now have a three jar system, which works well when properly utilized.

• One batch makes two jars.
• when the first jar is empty, I make a second batch using the first and third jars
• Laundry is continued through use of the second jar of the first batch.

Most often I am scraping the bits from the second jar while waiting for the new batch to be ready. But… I have been able to keep up the habit and haven't bought laundry detergent in a while, so mark that as a win.

Beyond saving money, I've been trying to live more simply, which means not buying things which aren't needed and will only clutter up the place. As a result of the practical spending effort — and because it just smells so good — handmade soap has become my default festival purchase. Soap is practical, needed even. Handcrafted, it is a mini luxury, especially these beer soaps, my all-time favorites.

Being immersed in the handmade culture with a growing affinity for artisan soap, it was really only a matter of time before I fell down that rabbit hole, too. I made my first batch of soap just to see if I could and was immediately hooked.

Testing my very first soap. We have suds!

What makes soap making a great hobby, it does save money, because the end product replaces a purchase. Much like buying a large sack of flour costs more than a loaf of bread but in the end produces much more, the same is true of soap. Lye is cheap, but the fats and oils can be costly on the front end. The savings are realized later. I use homemade soap almost exclusively. It is on both the kitchen and bathroom sinks. I have a bar in the shower, too, and just recently began using it for my face as well. I can't put an exact dollar amount on our savings, because our soap consumption is not something I'd ever tracked, but I do know my face wash alone was close to $7 a bottle.

My largest project to date: raw fleece to finished
sweater, spindle spun, which is still in progress.

While handspinning may not directly save us any money, it set in motion a huge shift in the way we live, altering our spending patterns and changing the type of goods we consume. Not bad for a simple hobby.