First Avocado Dyeing of Wool Yarn

Multiple very kind people saved avocado skins and pits for me to use to attempt another color of natural dye. This time I was hoping for pink.  This is what I obtained;

 The is Lion Brand Roving 100% Wool.  This started out as their natural white colorway. 

To prepare the dye bath I put all the seeds and skins in a large dye pot  and covered them with a lot of water. After bringing the pot to a boil, I let it boil for about fifteen minutes then dropped the heat to a simmer for about two hours, turned off the heat and let it sit overnight.

A while ago I saw a man natural dyeing with his yarn rolled into balls instead of in hanks.  Seemed like a great idea…so I left this yarn in the put up as I purchased it. In a hot water  and  dish soap bath I soaked the yarn for a couple of hours then rinsed and put in the dye pot—after taking the avocado parts out of the  dye bath.  I brought the water to a simmer and let it go for about an hour then took off the heat and let it sit.  The next day I remembered I wanted to dye some of the Canadian fiber so I put a handful of white fiber in, brought up the heat again briefly then took off heat again and let sit until another day.

Finally I poured the whole ness through a strainer and let the wool drain. The next day I rinsed and set the wool to drain for real.

By now you may be wondering about the color. To me it looks more beige than pink. No problem. It is all an experiment.

At the same time I had thrown in a light gray ball of yarn hoping to over dye it. Don’t think it did anything.  It would have been wise to wind off a tiny bit of yarn to see where we started.

When I get to the project for this ‘pink’ yarn I will share it.