Rapunzel glowing hair nightlight

This project is part of a larger makeover in my daughter's room, her favorite princess is Rapunzel and she of course asked for a Rapunzel-ed out room :) I was inspired to make this for her when hubs and I took a trip to IKEA. We came across this sweet strand of lights, I immediately grabbed them not knowing yet what they would become but sometimes you just know you have to have something when you see it right?!?! So for a few dollars, in the basket they went. I don't know about any of your girls, but mine is always complaining its too dark in her room. After an episode of shrieking and whining tucking her in for the night in her "dark" room, it hit me, Rapunzel's glowing hair!

This project is fairly easy but does require some patience, and you have to know how to braid ;)
Here's what I used:
2 skeins of yarn from Joann. I got the 1 pounder Caron in two different yellow colors, a nice yellow and one slightly darker, more gold. You should have about half leftover when we're complete.
1 strand of LED lights. Mine are from IKEA but you could use any LED strand you'd like, I believe the length is somewhere around 14 ft.
Command hooks. I used 3 of them, they are clear and hold 2 lb each.
A few cheap rubber bands for beginning and end of the hair.
**Optional** cheap timer for the outlet

I apologize in advance that I don't have photos through the process to show you. I wasn't sure how well it was going to turn out since I just figured it out as I went along, now I'm boo-hoo-ing that I didn't. I'm detailing each step below and hope you can follow. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them :)

Step #1
If you have a helper this goes much faster! Your first step will be to measure out the hair. I made my strands about 30 ft long. I found a bare long stretch of floor and started to lay out the first few pieces. I found that when you get to the end rather than snipping and going back to the beginning, its faster just to loop it and go back to the beginning and do the same there. You'll be trimming the hair at the end anyway so the ends won't be looped when we're finished. You'll want to make 3 piles of hair (for the 3 pieces that you will need for the braid) that are around 1" thick each. If you're supermom and have more time, you can opt to make it thicker but I wouldn't make it any skinnier than that. I made one pile the lighter color, one the darker color and one mixed. You can do it any way you'd like but I was happy with how this came out.

Step #2
When you're all done with the strand piles, wrap a rubber band around the top of each pile. After that wrap one around all 3 to join them together. This will help keep each pile "separate" while we prepare for the braid.

Step #3
Braiding is the trickiest part. You've got LONG pieces of yarn and we're about to start twisting them all together. I learned the hard way that this is almost impossible to do unless you're an octopus or you can convince your kids to play Maypole :) The easiest solution for me was to put the ends of each of the piles of yarn in a plastic shopping bag with the handles tied loosely enough that when I needed to get more out it came out without too much trouble. You'll want to have someone hold the top of the braid pretty taut or attach it to something heavy so you can begin your braid. I made a few passes and then re-arranged the bags on the floor with my feet to keep them untangled as I went along. I really wish someone had pictures of this, I'm sure it was pretty comical. I also "brushed" the hair with my fingers as I went along if I saw some pieces of the hair that were bunched up. It's easy to fix later if you don't catch all of it so don't go too crazy. Once you get in a rhythm it doesn't take very long to complete the braid. When you get to the end, secure it with another elastic.

Trim your ends and make the end of the braid nice and straight. Take a few pieces that you snipped off or some off of the skein and tie them around the elastic to cover it up. I used about 3 or 4 strands and knotted it in the back where it couldn't be seen.

Look over the braid to see if you've got any loops sticking out. If you do you can simply tuck the slack into the braid and no one will ever know ;)

Step #5
Decide where you want to hang your braid and secure your Command hooks to the wall. I used 3. We used the window as a "starting place" and made two dips along the wall with the braid. Make sure the end of your braid will be near an outlet to plug in the LED strand. Once you have applied the hooks and know how you want it to hang, start attaching the LED strand by taking the first flower and poking it through from the back of the braid to the front. This will hold it in place while you wrap the rest of the strand around the hair. When you get to the end, do the same with the last flower. Poke it through the hair and it will secure the strand.

Now hang your braid and admire your work :)

I feel like a broken record telling my kids to constantly turn off the lights in their room so when I found a 2 pk of outlet timers by the lights at IKEA I snatched them up. We plugged Rapunzel's hair into the timer and set it from bedtime to morning. No more fuss over left on lights!