I have now used avocados twice for dyeing wool fiber.
Thankfully before I did the first batch I was given some advice about taking time with the heating process and not letting it get too hot, otherwise the dye will be brown. Also to clean the pits really well, because any of the green flesh will cause the dye pot to turn brown.
The first batch I did was just a single skein for a contest, I’m still awaiting the results, and so I used a small pot that happened to be enamel and 6 avocado pits.
No mordanting or modifying this fiber just natural wool and avocado pits.
Here is the color.
A lovely light pink.
I was super excited about this because it was what I had heard about.
The second batch happened because past Sara had a plan that present Sara had forgotten about. I went to the storage shelf in the laundry room and picked up my box of mini skeins to dye. What I remembered being in the box was 25 mini skeins that had been mordanted or not and then dyed with onion skins. So ultimately I had 5 mini skeins of 5 different shades of orange to brown.
When I opened the box however, there were 4 other bags, each containing 25 more mini skeins of yarn. They were mordanted, sorted and the each set of tags was prepped and in baggies. What? I was confused.
I pulled out each set of tags to see what was on them. Onions with the already dyed ones I was expecting. Madder, avocado, cochineal and logwood. All were undyed except the onions and the logwood. I knew why I had dyed the onion yarn before packing it to move, because I didn’t want to haul all those onion skins 650 miles. Then I also remembered that I had a rule of no moving liquids, there was a small spill in the moving truck the last time… While it was small, it was fuchsia…
So that’s why the logwood yarns were dyed, I had a jar of logwood extract I had made and didn’t want to move, so I used it. There others though? I went outside to look at the dyestuff that I have. I got out the scale and had exactly enough cochineal for the yarn and the madder was the same way. I’d been saving avocado pits since we got here. OK let’s do this then!
This time the avocado colors came out differently. I used more wool and most mordanted, but none came out that wonderful pink. I used many more pits, I lost count. When the color in the pot wasn’t becoming what it had before I kept adding more and more.
Aside from the mordants present, which were all adhered to the wool, there were 2 variables. One, it’s possible the water from the sink was different that day, but not very likely. Two, this is the one I think did it, I used a different pot. I had a lot more yarn to dye this time and couldn’t use that little enamel pot, I had to use my large stainless pot. While stainless steel isn’t supposed to effect things, I think maybe this time it did. The only real way to find out is to try again in an enamel pot.
Here are the skeins from the 25 colors from one dye pot.
I am now on the look out for a large enamel pot. I’d love to have the pinks in these smaller skeins and know if the stainless steel is what did it.
These grays and browns are awesome too though.
Here are ALL of those mini skeins out drying.
Azariahs Fibre Arts 