I hate boring socks. There. I said it. Even more so for kids. Socks should be fun. Now, I’m not talking tacky, just fun. Solids. Stripes. Dots. Patterns. Bright colors. Fun. And in COTTON. I wish there were more options for the 3-4T set beyond the tiny findings at Trumpette (hello, Trumpette, why do you stop your sizing at 24 months?) or Mini Boden. Is that too much to ask?
Recently we were looking for such animals for my eldest son, but all we found in local brick & mortar stores were either nasty early-onset-of-sweaty-stinky-feet polyester blends in lame-o colors or with annoying licensed characters slapped all over them; another thing I’m not a big fan of marching around in.
So one fine evening my family took matters into our own hands and worked on a fun home project to amend this problem. Home Dye Job: Sock Edition!
Mind you, we have done this before (as my son LOVES the color orange and it turns out that it’s like pulling teeth to find pairs of plain orange cotton socks). This time around we wanted to experiment with more. My husband and son went out and hand selected the colors they wanted. They also came back with two giant packs of white cotton socks. Game on!
Turns out, my husband is the master dyer in the family and while he prepped the giant vats of dye on our stovetop, our eldest took on the task of pre-wetting each pair of socks before they were to go into the pots. After enough socks, he honed his technique to a fine craft. “Mama, you hold the sock open for the water to go inside. Like this…” he informed me.
He did a perfect job. So much so, I could barely keep up with taking each wet sock from him and transferring it into a dye bath before he was already handing me another one.
Hubby stirred and poked socks down under water. (Note his handy protective gloves; I didn’t want you to think I was married to Big Bird or Ronald McDonald.) The kitchen was getting progressively steamier and steamier, all the while Mister Baby Pants sat in his bouncy chair, cooing and gurgling his cheers of enthusiasm for our family DIY craft project.
We got all socks into pots. Orange, yellow, cobalt and a fun mystery combo-mix my husband created. A stove full of sock-y witch’s brew, and with all that steam rising, it was perfectly Halloween-y.
Hungry? Don’t eat from that pot! Or that one! Bubbling and steaming and encroaching on bedtime, we got everything dyed and in and out of the washer/dryer.
The cobalt and teal-turquoise picked up more of the woven texture in the foot bed area of the socks, but I actually kind of like the relaxed look. Mission accomplished. Brightly colored socks galore. I’d say we’re all set for a while!
