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- last entry / next entry - 2006-01-09 | 11:36 a.m.
Tie-dye should only happen in college In college, some group of people decided to have a tie-dye party out on the quad. I'm sure it was the artsy creatives over in Gulick, who had adventuresome spirit and access to the goods necessary to pull off the stunt. Everybody on campus was invited to bring something to dye in the communal buckets and so Sass and I thought we'd head over with some of our bland emergency underwear. You know the type�you're out of unders and laundry quarters/time/detergent is nowhere near, so you pop across the street to Walgreens for a pack of their very best. Plain, white, some blend of cotton and other, they were neither cute nor fashionable�but they got the job done. Needless to say, they were the perfect sacrificial lamb since their combined worth was appx $5 and wouldn't be missed (until the next overdue laundry day). With unders and a sports bra in hand, we joined the throngs outside and got to work. I have to say that until they faded away to pale pastels of their former selves, Sass and I had some sassy secrets under our plain blue jeans! This is all to say that I enjoy the idea of dying something another color and have done it with great competency in the past. It was the only thing that kept me going last night as I tried to dye a pair of jeans back from their faded glory...and screwed up just about every step in the process.
The directions are pretty short and clear, and allow for the process to happen in a washing machine. Dissolve dye, wet pants, add wet pants to dye in a hot water bath, wait thirty minutes, rinse in cool water 'til clear, launder gently, let dry. Instead, I didn't stop the washer fast enough from starting the drain/rinse/spin cycle, effectively cutting the thirty-minute soak down to somewhere between 12-15, hauled out the drippy jeans into the utility sink and started to rinse them, thought better about it, tried to fill up the washer again so it could soak the jeans in cold water, got it filled a bit but couldn't get it to drain, tried 47 combinations of trying to fool the washer into draining, failed at that, tried an entire wash cycle and it started filling with more water, tried to rinse jeans and kept finding more dye to rinse out, finally got the tub to empty and most of the dye out, gave up and ran the washer thru a quick cool cycle to do the dirty work for me, then had to run another wash cycle, this time with a big blue sheet (in case there was still more dye lurking in my pants), then as they went into the dryer I had to run a cleansing cycle in the wash with 2 cups of bleach to make sure my next load didn't come out all blueberry. And my jeans? Aren't as dark as I wanted, making me a bit sad knowing that those lost 15 minutes of soak time would have done the trick. Damn my overly-smart washing machine. Damn, damn, damn. And in the midst of all this madness, I opened my freezer door, dropped a plant into the freezer that was 90% dirt and 10% newly-planted bulbs, effectively planting the bulbs in amoung the frozen vegetables. AND therefore the fridge, since it landed on the door top and the little accordion seal. And it was all over the floor. And the dirt, since slightly damp, was freezing to all surfaces, making removal even more difficult. I got the vacuum, started to remove the rest of the dirt, and then noticed that there wasn't much suction. Time to empty the bag. I went over to the wastebasket, leaned over to tip it directly into the bag and minimize dirt distribution, and promptly rammed my head into a serious cabinet corner that I have forcefully met three times prior. Have I mentioned that I am a competent handywoman and capable of taking care of myself? Yeah, it's been a hell of a winter. What's next? I shudder to think. - last entry / next entry - |
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