Well we have now passed the allowed five calamity days and will have to start making them up over spring break. No skin off my back since I'll be on maternity leave! This is the first time ever in my 21 years of education (thirteen as a student, and eight as a teacher) that we have ever gone over five calamity days. That should tell you something about this winter! For the past two days we've been under a Level Two Snow Emergency, which means you are only supposed to be on the roads if you HAVE to. I don't think going shopping qualifies as "HAVE TO" unfortunately. There's something at the thrift store that I want to pick up for my friend; hopefully it's still there by the time I get around to getting there. I am kicking myself for not getting it last time... actually the last TWO times. I can't believe I passed it up TWICE.
Anyway, last night I had some good times with RIT dye. Back in college, several Columbus Kmarts were closing, and I got a few RIT dyes for very cheap. I don't know if dye ever expires, but this dye would be about ten years old. Plus, when I bought it, it looked like it might have been sitting on the shelf for quite awhile. The "royal blue" label had faded to a sort of periwinkle color. But I decided to take a chance on it, and I had pretty good results.
I don't know what is wrong with me that I cannot for the life of me remember to take "before" pictures. I fully intended on showing you what these items looked like before the blue dye. The baby items were mine when I was a youngin'. My great-grandma crocheted/knitted them. Actually, they might have even belonged to my dad when HE was a baby. I also dyed a cream colored outfit my sister-in-law got me last year for Christmas. I wore it as-is all last year, however my undies had a tendency to show through the pants. They're technically PJs so I didn't mind showing off my bloomers when it's just the hubby seeing it. Now that I'm hugely pregnant however, I've decided to wear this outfit out and about because it's comfy and it fits (and no one would know they're PJs because it looks like a jogging suit). I figure it's no longer proper to show off my underwear. I hope dying the outfit blue will take care of that problem!
The reason I wanted to dye the baby items is because, quite frankly, they were dingy and nasty looking. They were white until time took its toll and turned them into a nasty yellowish color. Also, the blanket is missing its binding, so that will be a job I tackle today. I'd also like to add a little wool felt applique like she does over at Heart Felt. She's absolutely awesome; you should totally check out her work.
Sorry again for the lack of "befores," but here are the "afters!"
This is the baby afghan that Nan made. You can see it really soaked up the dye well.
Compare that with the baby blanket which did not soak up the dye nearly as well. I think I know why... I did it all in the sink in two loads. The second load, which was comprised of the binding-less blanket and the little sweater (below), did not have the benefit of the scalding hot water like the PJs and the aghan had, hence the lighter color. That's okay though- two shades of blue for the price of one, right?!
You can barely tell by this picture that it's blue, although in real life it does look like a soft, baby blue. Wouldn't it look darling with a little felt applique on it? I have two green sweaters and a black one that I've felted... I'm trying to decide what to applique that would make this little sweater not look so feminine.
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