Tie Dyed Socks

 These are my oldest grandbrats. Love them to pieces!! 

Here they are, when they were little. (They grew up wayyy too fast!) 

They used to love wearing my tie dyed clothes. Especially the socks.

Well, on a recent visit, the youngest one asked me if I'd tie dye some socks for her again. 

Heck, yeah! Sounds like fun! 

Unfortunately for me and lucky for her, I'd forgotten how much work it is to do these! 

Here's a contraption I made to mix the dyes in, to keep the tiny particles from floating all over my house and to keep me from inhaling the stuff too. Colored nose hair is not attractive, no matter what anyone tells you. Not that I have any. I'm just sayin'.

 Setting up the supplies.

 I thought that while I was at it, I'd dye some socks for my nine year old grandbrat too.

 I began by washing the socks in hot water, to get out all of the sizing.

 Then dried them.

I mixed the soda-ash solution. For detailed directions, please go here;
Dharma Trading Company.

 Soaked the socks in the solution for 15 minutes.

 Then used the washer to spin-dry them, making sure NOT to have any water rinsing them again!

 Set up the rest of my supplies.

 Played with the colors a little before making my choices. Fun.

 Rolled the socks. There are so many fancy ways to tie dye, but this is the easiest way for me.

 Mixed the MX Dyes in my handy-dandy safety container.

 Some dyes are harder to mix than others.





Poured the first color over some of the socks.











Then the second.

 And the third. I used three colors in all of my color combinations.

 Another batch.

 And another.

And yet another.
There were more, but who wants to see them all? They all look the same after awhile.
Kinda like smelling perfume after perfume. All the same.

 After they'd been dyed, they all got covered with tin-foil.

 And a nice, cozy blanket to keep them warm for 24 hours.

 After that came the washing-out, by hand, until the rinse water was clean.
(Boooring.)

 Not an easy task. Well, easy, but time consuming.

 I like this picture for some reason.

Here's the detergent I use for dyed pieces. Sold on that Dharma website I gave you earlier.

 After I washed them all by hand, they got tossed into the washing machine for the final wash.

And into the dryer. I loved peeking in there and see how cute they were. Even though part of the socks didn't take the dye as well as others. Bummer! The socks should have been 100% cotton, but they had some Licra in them. Double bummer! :(

 Loved the green ones. Green being my favorite color and all. (It's all about me, isn't it?)

 And here they are.

 I had some mixed dye left over, so I dyed some little dresses that I had from years ago, but never used.

Stuck them in boxes, along with a ton of love... and sent them off.
One to Georgia and one to Oregon.

 
As it turned out, I ended up having to fly to Georgia, getting there before the socks did and was able to take a few pictures.

They were a big hit with the nine year old grandbrat!! :)

The three year old (just back from cheer-leading practice with her big sister :) looked like she wanted some too.

Didn't have any socks for her, but the dress/nighty was a big hit. I love her sister, in the background, taking off with her stash before the little one got any ideas. :)
Love these guys to pieces too!!

And their eight year old brother!! Who'll wear pink socks during October, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but that's as close to colorful socks as he'll get. Love this guy like crazy!

So, thanks to this one, (fifteen now!!) I was able to try my hand at tie dyeing again.
(Wish she'd been here to help me clean up!! ;)
She loved hers too, by the way!! Which made me really, really happy!

To all my grandbrats...
I miss you guys!!!!! ~





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Signing off for now,
gabriele