This is part two of a dyeing with avocado blog.
If you missed out on part one, you can read it here…
I pretty much did the same for the seeds as I did with the skins. I chopped the seeds in half and popped them in the pot and covered them with water.
I left the mixture out in the sun for a week or so, then boiled the mixture for an hour then took the seeds out.
Instead of wool, this time I used a bamboo/ cotton blend. I decided to re-wind it a bit looser as I wanted to put the ball straight into the pot and the original ball was wound very tightly.
I pre wet the yarn and put it into the dye which had a generous dollop of white vinegar add to it to help fix the colour to the yarn.
I heated up the dye bath till it started bubbling then turned it down. You don’t want to agitate the yarn or else it can felt. This cotton/bamboo yarn is especially delicate as it’s got lots of fine threads wound together.
I left the yarn in the dye bath for about 40 minutes, then I turned it over to make sure it was dyed evenly and did another 20 minutes or so. I kept checking the dye bath to see if it was going lighter and clearer, which meant that the cotton was taking it up.
Once I was happy with the result, I turned off the heat and left the ball in the pot to cool down naturally for an hour or so. Then I filled up the sink with cold water and a bit of dish-washing liquid and gently washed the ball. A bit of dye ran out but it was minimal.
Then I carefully unwound the ball and put it on a drying rack in the shade to fully dry. Actually, I wasn’t as careful as I should have been, as the yarn got really tangled and I had an awful time de tangling it, but that’s another story!
And, ta-daaaaa!
The finished product.
I didn’t make anything from this one, I gave it to a girlfriend who’s a mad keen crocheter like myself (I’m probably more mad than keen), but anything she makes from it I’ll pop down below.
That’s it from me today, but I’ve been playing with flower petals, cherries and blue topping!
Stay tuned,
Jacqui xx