Tie-Dye: Round 2

Adult Hoodie.
I knew it wouldn't be easy doing a long sleeved hooded piece but gave it a go anyway. And as I suspected, it wasn't easy!

Had a hard time figuring out how to wrap the hood and sleeves into the tie for the spiral pattern I was aiming for. I have a tie-dyed long sleeved zip-up hoody that I purchased this Spring, and can tell from the dye pattern on it that the sleeves and hood and main pieces of the body were dyed as seperate swatches and then sewn together. AHHH! THAT'S not gonn'a happen, so I did the best I could working the sleeves and hood into the wrap.

After you truss your piece up and apply the dye, you wrap it in saran-wrap (a plastic bag would do, too) and let it sit for 8 or so hours. After I applied the dye, I thought I had ruined it. Got splotches and splatters where they shouldn't have been, and ran out of dye before I was satisified with how much was on it.:(

But when I unwrapped it the next morning and got through rinsing it out - the hardest part I think! - I was pleasantly surprised.



More white in it than I would like (LOTS more dye if I ever do another of these), but overall, much better than I was expecting. What do ya' think?

Tie-Dye Round 3: Tie Dye For Tots - coming soon to a blog near you.
Here's a sneak-peak, Kate. ;)

Christmas Cactus 2010

So last fall I was given a cutting of a Christmas Cactus and by mid-October it had bloomed. You can read all about that here: 2009 Cactus.
But here's what it looked like then:



And here's what it looks like today:



It just started blooming this week, making it much more a Christmas Cactus than last year. Last year it was more a Halloween Cactus. But wow! Look how much it's grown in a year. I can't believe it survived a whole year+ in my care.