Madge, Your Soaking In It or, The Makings of A Mehndi Artist or Two or Three.

7-8 years ago:  bought the book at the local bookstore with the best of intentions. 

February 2007: planned on making this a Valentine's week project.  After re-reading the book, decided, rather than gather all the supplies myself and attempt one of the multiple "recipes" in the book, to go ahead and order the kit recommended in the book.  Well worth it, I'd say, and nicely packaged.  Unfortunately I didn't order it in time for it to get here in time for Valentines' Day.  If you live near Seattle, you could pick one up yourself at Earthhues in Ballard.  I stopped in there years ago before they were open to the public for retail sales and it was an inspiring place to visit (and it's right down the street from Clover Toys!).  They also sell natural dye kits and individual concentrated dye extract powders.  I've never used any of those but know that they are very high quality and probably quite easy to use.    

This weekend:  Friday potluck at our place.  Saturday a parade, "gold digging" at the bank, and music in the park in town and an evening at the reclaimed lumber yard.  Sunday how about a relaxing day at home relaxing finally doing mendhi?  Despite the simplification of the process that the kit allows, the preparation still took some time, as it should, I suppose.  I did that part on Friday afternoon. 

Once we got over our "blank slate" hesitations and started painting, it was difficult to stop.  Now I can understand the tattoo addiction, though I'm not inclined towards a real one.  After doing a small medallion on each of the boys, R started in on himself and then went to work on his brother and his cousin.   E:  "Make it look like fake blood on my knee!"   Then, he dove in himself.  We eventually had to put a stop to it or they/we'd be covered. 

The results were a little, um, "rustic" this first time.  The boys weren't the only ones unable to sit still long enough to prevent the henna from running together or flaking off before the recommended several hours were up.  We'll be doing this again sometime.  The kit comes with enough henna to do three batches and one was far more than enough for C, his sister, our nephew, our two boys, and myself.  We used maybe a half to two-thirds of the batch.

As for the post title, something about the henna preparations, with the pot of tea and cloves boiling down on the stove, and the little bowls of henna paste and sugared lemon juice, not to mention skeins of wool soaking in the bathtub and pot after pot of dyeing and mordanting yarn and woolens on the stove these days (more on that soon) it just feels that, lately, like Madge, I'm "soaking in it."  I know, it's a stretch, but check out the video.  It's a blast from the past! 

Comments

[Stephanie]

Oh...I love henna. I became quite the addict years ago although it's been a little while since I've done any. A great place to get the powder is everydayhenna.com. The "Prabda" gives a great eggplant color stain on the palms of your hands. It's really pretty. Once you get use to mixing up your own...it's great to buy quality henna without having to rely on the kits. Also...a great place for patterns is thehennapage.com *love* that site :o) Just trying to share the henna love! I think I might have to go and take one of my cones out of the freezer and henna my hand tomorrow night!! I've just recently found your blog and have been really enjoying it :o) I am in the area as well (I'm in Kirkland) Nice to meet you!!!

[Stephanie]

ACK! After scrolling though...you obviously *don't* live around these parts LOL. I just thought since you mentioned Ballard...you did. Anyway...still love the henna and still love reading about knitting etc :o)

[maryse]

what great fun! and thanks for the video. i was probably your boys' ages when that commerical was on tv. crazy.

[Brandy]

Henna is so much fun! You've inspired me to get mine out, now that barefoot weather is practically here.

[Kelly]

I love Henna and bought a kit years ago to do it myself, and who knows where it is now! I'll have to try and dig it up. It looks like you all had a lovely weekend@

[angelique]

I love henna "tattoos"! Yours turned out great. When my father lived in Malaysia, I visited him there for months at a time and would buy henna stencils at the market. Using a stencil is a little like cheating maybe, but the patterns were gorgeous and the results were great. I still have some framed on my wall (stencils that is).

[Peg]

What fun! Thanks for the link to 'Madge'. I had forgotten that commercial, so it was a great blast from the past.
If you go to my blog, you will see that I am using your adaptations on the 'Rosebud' baby sweater. I am enjoying knitting the back and fronts together, but if I were a bit short of yarn, I might find this method a bit scary!!

[Kristin]

Beautiful work, Siri! Chloe and I just did our first henna at the LIFE is Good unschooling conference in Corvallis, OR last weekend. It was a blast and we are thinking about having a henna party here at home with friends from our homeschooling group.

You can see my most recent post about the conference and photos of our henna on my unschooling blog: www.knitonequilttoo.typepad.com/live_love_laugh_learn.

[Heidi]

I love henna, too, and haven't done any yet this summer. Your decorated feet got me itching for sandals and warm weather. Thank God the weather cooperated.

[celeste pinheiro]

HI!! My sister used to live in NE Africa, and whenever people would leave for a trip, or forever, their friends would do the mendhi to bless their travels(they believed it had a spiritual quality of protection and blessing and carrying love). When my sis came home for the last time, they did that for her and her daughter, and it was quite an experience in many different ways. She was so sad to leave. But it helped, too.

Love your Robin Hood Green!! I bet if you wore a bikini top people would not mind you picking up catkins!! (heehee!)

[Carla]

I remember Madge well. And I think I was a bit older than your boys (as per the comment above)!