Felted Soap on a Rope

When I was a little girl I always knew what I was giving my daddy for Christmas....Soap on a rope! And every year he would look surprised as he opened my gift, and proclaim it to be perfect!
Well, this year he's getting...FELTED soap on a rope (as are a few other men on the family Christmas list)

Crochet Felted Soap on a Rope

Materials
1/2 a ball of worsted weight felt-able wool yarn
Crochet hook size 6.00 mm
1 bar of soap (I used Zest)

Directions

Ch 7 st
Sc in first st from hook to end. 3 sc in end st. DO NOT Turn Work. Sc back down the other side of your chain with 3sc in last st. Crochet  with sc in the round until "bag" is barely big enough for the bar of soap to fit into sideways and have open edges meet.
With a sl st, grab a loop from opposite sides of the opening and with sl st close the bag all the way with the soap inside. Slip st to the middle of the  bag "top" and chain 40 st and join again to the top of the bag.
End off and tie in.

Now the fun part!

FELTING

You need a sink of hot water that you can just barely stand you hands in and a bucket of cold water. If you have a wash board, pull it out, if not use a VERY fine food grater.
Submerge the soap in the hot water and be sure it is good and wet. Then start rubbing the soap in your hands to felt the fibers. Dip in the cold water to rinse suds and repeat with a dip in the hot water and scrub.
Use your wash board/grater (or a rough surface)to scrub the fibers into felt, following the hot bath /cold dip method, until you are satisfied with your felting.
Lay flat on a towel to partially dry, and then hang from a towel bar to finish drying completely.

Make little tags and wrap for a gift!