Dip Dyeing Away

The avocado pit dye jars are empty, possibly for the season, and the yarn and thread are ready to be crocheted into projects!

I'd started a new batch of dye back in spring because I needed freezer space that was being hogged up by avocado pits from the last year or so. I stuck a new hank of wool yarn into the dye in May but then had to transfer it to a new container in July after the neighborhood bear played soccer with the plastic pretzel jar I'd been using for avocado dye projects for years. I used two first dips, meaning I used fresh dye twice, on this hank of yarn, hoping to get a really rich color. Now that a ton of tint has been absorbed, oh, how I hope this hank holds its color!!!

I'd stuck a hank of crochet thread in with the yarn in the recycled glass canned peaches jar with fresh avocado dye that had soaked in the sun (in the living room window during winter and on the porch as soon as overnight frost danger passed) for about seven months, hoping to get a darker hue on both the yarn and the thread. The thread, which initially was dipped in a jar of avocado pit dye that had already been used at least twice, really needed more pigment. Now it looks awesome!!!

All my dyed fibers get a Synthopol bath followed by a strawberry Suave shampoo bath followed by a strawberry Suave conditioner rinse. The Synthropol supposedly helps the dye cling to the fiber, and the strawberry (or cherry blossom or peach or whatever fragrant Suave products happen to be on the grocery store shelves) makes the washing process fun because it smells so good.

Now all the ammonia and crushed avocado pits are nurturing soil and flowers in the garden. The thread is dried and wound into a ball. The yarn is on the drying rack and will be wound into a ball as soon as it dries. I think I discovered the cure to drought... Set the drying rack outside to help speed the process, and the rain comes a tumblin' down!!! Ha ha ha!

When I finished washing the yarn and got ready to hang it on the drying rack, I found another hank of avocado-dyed yarn from last year hanging there that somehow had been forgotten.

Now it's in a ball and waiting with 11 other wound balls to be crocheted into a poncho I've had brewing in my head since my second trip to The Wave on Valentine's Day 2014. Yes, I've been avocado pit-dyeing wool yarn one hank at a time for eight and a half years to create my dream project!!!

The thread project has been in progress for three years. It's really slow-going. I used to work on it during my weekday train commutes and then while I had to wait in the car during Lizard' physical therapy during the pandemic. I haven't totally figured out a routine new block of crochet time. Yet I think this project is going to be SO beautiful. The pattern will be on my blog for an upcoming Snowflake Monday when I finish what I think will be a shawl...

Now I finally have enough yarn to begin designing the poncho!!! (Which I hope will work up faster because yarn is bigger than thread...)

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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Jarred

I haven't wanted to do any dyeing for a while now because I haven't used up the yarn and thread I've already dyed. But summer is solar-dyeing season, and I needed space in my freezer that had been devoted to future avocado pits dye projects.

So, I ordered another half dozen hanks of bare Felici. Just love the softness of this yarn!!! And it takes up the dye so beautifully!

While I waited for the yarn to arrive, I put the frozen avocado pits in my thrift store blender on the porch and made four more jars of dye, which sat in the sun for a few weeks, solar brewing.

When the new yarn arrived, I prepared the first hank for dyeing and stuck it in fresh dye.

I also had a hank of crochet thread I'd already solar-dyed with avocado pits, but it had been a third or fourth dip. I try to soak up every single drop of tint I can get befoe I discard the ammonia-soaked avocado pit mush into the flower garden. (Helps keep critters away from the flowers, and turns hydrangeas, delphiniums and larkspur bluer.) This particular hank of crochet thread didn't take up much color; there probably wasn't much pigment left! I decided to overdye the pale sandstone thread and stuck it in the jar with the yarn because I already have enough pale avocado crochet thread. I'd really like to have more deep, dark rich browns and reds for the motif project I've been working on for more than three years.

My best avocado pit dyeing results have been when I let the dye (in airtight glass jars) sit in the sun for six or seven months. Dye with barely a couple of months of sun hadn't produced much hue on the fiber when I was forced to take it out of the plastic pretzel jar... One of Smokey the Bear's relatives made a surprise late-night visit and rolled the jar all over the backyard trying to get it open, presumably because the bruin couldn't tell from the smell this wasn't healthy eatin'.

Sorry I have no photos other than the puncture wounds in the jar's lid! I wonder if the bear knows how lucky he was that he couldn't get into the ammonia-laced dye?

Back into a glass jar with more fresh avocado pit dye the yarn went. I'll let it sit for a while again before I check the color, which I hope will be darker.

The thread is almost exactly what I was hoping for, though, so I'm going to go ahead and wind it into a ball so it can commiserate with the rest of the avocado-dyed crochet thread stash before they get transformed into motif magic!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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Spicy Avocado

My most recent jar of avocado skin/pit dye didn't produce as vivid tones as I'd hoped. I think most of the avocado dyes I've been using through the winter are third and fourth dip. I did the freeze/thaw cycle on this dip because I've found the dyes seem to adhere better if I let them dry before I attempt to wash. Freezing overnight and then thawing also seems to richen the colors. We had two snow accumulations while I let the yarn dry.

I did get some lovely tone variation, but I'd like a little more depth. So, back in the dye jar this hank went, and I consolidated all of my brewing dye jars into that one jar. Some of those jars have been going since August. They may not have much pigment left, so I may have to give this hank a third soak, but for now, it looks pretty in the jar. It's on the porch now with two more hanks I started two and three weeks ago.

I started three new jars of avocado pit dye and one new jar of avocado skin dye. It's warm enough they can sit on the porch now, but I kept the fluid levels down just in case it does freeze overnight. I don't need any more broken Mason jars!

We had a record low of 13 degrees Monday night! Good thing it came with enough snow to blanket the flowers that have been fooled into spring! 13 degrees would have wiped them all out!

The jars survived. Thank heavens!

Lizard loves to watch when I start new avocado dye jars. The color deepens pretty quickly the first day, and he's amazed every time. He couldn't believe the starting hue while I was grinding up the pits in my thrift store blender. (Kitchenware should never be used for cooking once it's been used for dyeing, so I opt for super cheap dyeing tools by buying them used.) Lizard said the crushed avocado pits remind him of a good bowl of chili with cheese. The color is rather similar!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Time for Me to Dye

A cranberry theme spontaneously blossomed on my blog this week, and I was trying to figure out something fiber-related I could add for today. I don't have any cranberry-hued quilting projects in the works, although the color family has been very tempting all week. But no more new quilt projects (except my neighbors' new baby at the end of this month) until I finish up a few more existing WIPs!!!

I did recently finish up a three-month avocado dye jar and a three-month avocado peel-dyed hank of wool yarn. Avocado peels and pits create a pigment sort of similar to the color of cranberry, at least before the entire natural dyeing process is done. I have six finished avocado peel- and avocado pit-dyed wool yarn hanks (shown above), and I'm hoping to finish six more, which I hope will be enough for a poncho design I've had in my head since about 2013. Hank #7 is almost ready to be wound into a ball; it's drying in the sun! I will begin the hank #8 three-month dip this weekend.

Natural dyeing with avocado pits and skins is a long process. I do all my natural dyeing via the sun. I use solar pigment extraction to obtain the glorious avocado dyes I use. In solar avocado pigment extraction and solar avocado dyeing, the longer you let a dye jar stew, the better the color will be. Some of my previous dye jars (not my current project) have solar-brewed for up to two years. Last year my jars got to enjoy the outdoors much longer than their predecessors because we didn't have extended overnight winter temperatures until about November. (I bring my jars inside when there's a danger of overnight freeze, then put them back out again the next day. I learned the hard way about nine years ago why you don't leave a glass jar full of dye outside -- or even in the uninsulated garage -- during an overnight freeze. So much fun to clean up!) Since November, my dye jars have been in my living room and bedroom windows, soaking up the winter sun.

The avocado pit and skin dye looks a bit like cranberry juice, right? It's amazing to watch a dye jar turn from clear to color in the sun in less than 48 hours.

Of course, the final fiber color is several shades lighter than the dye, so the finished color is not quite cranberry. But breathtaking, nevertheless. As far as I'm concerned, anyway.

I thought perhaps I could make something with some hand-dyed cranberry-hued thread. But, alas, my stash is seriously red-impaired.

Okay, so perhaps there's enough time to dye one hank of thread in the desired shade. I didn't have cranberry-hued dye, so I mixed a tiny bit of imperial purple with vintage red.

I solar-steeped for a day, then let the color set for another day. I washed the thread, and it dried all day Tuesday. Yesterday, I wound it into a ball. Looks a bit like boysenberry to me, but I love how the color crocked!

Still bent on cranberry, I hanked another 100 yards of thread and did one more dip. The second dip is always lighter than the first dip. The newest hank is not quite ready to wind into a ball yet because it's still drying. But I think it's pretty darned close!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Birthday Bandanas

Turns out I bought nine different fabrics between May and November of last year to make bandanas for Lizard. These were supposed to be a Christmas gift. He got a new knee a couple of weeks before Christmas. I'd hilariously thought I could finish a quilt every day of his home health rehab that I stayed home with him. The bandanas would be an easy project to knock off in between quilts.

Parkinson's and total knee replacement do not play nicely. These bandanas have been sitting next to my sewing machine since Thanksgiving. I finally finished them at 10:01 last night. His birthday was yesterday. I'm working from home, but it sometimes feels like two jobs. My regular job, plus, it feels a little as if I'm the only staff member in an assisted living facility.

That's not a complaint. I'm so glad I am able to take care of him.

However, the Parkinson's took a dramatic turn for the worse last week, and Lizard's had trouble walking, as well as every other thing he does. We were able to speak with his neurologist via telemed on Tuesday, then were successful in contacting his endocrinologist via a portal that afternoon. We spent my (extra long) Wednesday lunch hour (and his birthday lunch) getting his blood drawn. Now we must wait for results and what we hope will be a modification in his medication that will reverse the deterioration that has occurred in the last six days.

Lizard finally got to sleep peacefully at about 6 p.m. last night, and I went to work right away on the bandanas. Midway through, one of our neighbors brought over a homemade apple pie to celebrate Lizard's birthday and National Apple Pie Day. My whole neighborhood is awesome, but this Shelter in Place has brought everyone so much closer together, even though we must keep a physical distance. Everyone looks out for everyone.


Lizard already has about 40 bandanas I've made for him. We have been wearing them as masks while our real masks are in the washing machine. The bandana collection started, though, as a way to keep Lizard's head from sunburning while hiking or riding his bike. For the last two weeks, he hasn't been able to tie his bandana by himself, and last Friday, he couldn't even get his leg over the bicycle. The Parkinson's is going that fast.

When Lizard wakes up today (probably around 2 a.m., but he'll try to let me sleep), I'm hoping he will be thrilled by his new bandanas and fresh apple pie. (Update: He thought the bandanas were masks to be mailed today. Now he knows they are for him!!) Perhaps the change in his medication will come through today. That would be the best birthday present of all!






Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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