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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