No, I'm talking about ink spots.The kind that come from ink pens. The kind that smear on paper and maybe get on your hands. The kind that bleed through paper and make a spot on a table...the kind that come from a pen that gets over looked in a jacket or pants pocket and goes through a wash cycle. Yes, I am talking about the kind of ink spot that makes a permanent mark on a favorite pair of jeans.
I do a LOT of laundry on a weekly basis. You would think after all those loads of laundry and having three boys that I would remember to check every pocket before it goes into the washer. (Have you ever found a crayon, chap stick, coins, baggie full of dirt, dog food or a live lizard after running a load of laundry?? These are all good reasons to religiously check pockets before starting the washing machine.) On one fateful day, not so long ago, I neglected to do that. As it turns out, hidden away in the deep recesses of a pocket was a Pilot G-2 .05 pen...black ink. In this same load of laundry was my most favorite, comfortable pair of jeans.
When I pulled them out of the washer, they were covered! Just covered with big black splotches of ink! Ack!! I ran them through another wash cycle. And another. I treated the spots with stain remover and THEN ran them through yet another cycle. I tried Oxi-Clean, about three different stain sticks, bleach, soaking, scrubbing and I still had "ring around the collar." Oh wait...never mind...that's a Wisk commercial from my childhood. And sadly, there was no ancient Chinese secret to employ on these stains.
I had to come to grips with the fact that my favorite pair of jeans were ruined. Oddly enough, the pen still worked just fine. (!) There were too many ink spots and they were scattered about in such a way that they didn't look like they had been put there on purpose. Hmm. On purpose. Could I make them look like they were supposed to be there? Not really. I thought about dying the jeans a different color, but I didn't think I would like them in a different color. I liked them as blue jeans. It seemed like my only option was to cover the ink spots somehow.
The plan that took shape in my mind was this: I had some silver-ish, grey-ish yarn from some forsaken project that I thought I would get to along the way. I took a size G crochet hook and crocheted the longest chain EVER!! Seriously, I crocheted that chain for good portions of two evenings in a row. Then, I laid out my jeans and started coiling and pinning that long crochet chain in patterns and designs over the ink spots on the jeans. I also had some light green buttons that I employed in the design scheme. Anywhere there was an ink spot, I covered it with the crochet chain and the buttons. This is how they turned out. (Minus a view of the back left leg. Somehow or other, no photo of that and it's really too bad because there were two pretty sweet hearts and a cute little flower.)
The ink spots turned out to be a good thing. As much as I liked the jeans before this happened they were just jeans, albeit comfortable jeans. Now, they were something special. Some days, life is kind of like that load of laundry. You reach in, fully expecting to pull things out the way you put them in there...only clean. And when those unexpected ink spots show up, it's hard to know what to do with them. Getting rid of them isn't always an option so you're left with figuring out how to make the best of the situation. And when you do that, the results can turn out to be better than before. :)
Peace out,
Lyn
