![\"\"](\"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/1-_MG_4697.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA year ago I saw some references to\u00a0 avocados\u00a0 giving a delicate pink colour without the use of any additional mordants, relying on the tannin\u00a0 contained within the stone or skins, I was fascinated and\u00a0 shortly gave it a test. There were several methods advocated , generally long soaks in water and ammonia mixes\u00a0 perhaps for several months, or long simmering at low temperatures. I tried a few tests and was\u00a0 a bit disappointed with the results, pale pinks but nothing that I thought I couldn’t have got with a little bit of exhaust cochineal, so the idea of using avocados didn’t last.<\/p>\n
Fast forward about 9 months and I found an old large jar filled with avocado bits and\u00a0 rather dark red liquid, so certainly worth\u00a0 using with some yarn. I\u00a0 made two small skeins of shetland wool, one alum mordanted and the other untreated, soaked them and pushed them into the jar making sure they were well covered and left them overnight, and indeed for a few days. The liquid didn’t feel soapy so I didn’t think there was much alkali left, but I didn’t check the pH.<\/p>\n
By chance it was tricolore salad for supper, so I saved the skins and pits , washed to remove any flesh, smashed the pits, let them dry and the next day very slowly simmered them for about 8 hours or so, topping up with water as needed, and pleased to see a very strong colour appearing, almost as much as the 9 month jar.<\/p>\n
Another day passed and\u00a0 tests in the simmered dye bath proved positive for a good strong colour, and when put alongside the fermented bath showed a lot of similarities on the un mordanted skein , but the alum one was a much stronger colour\u00a0 – not so much pink as a light brick red ( on the right of the picture)<\/p>\n
With this revelation I decided it was certainly worth\u00a0 using the\u00a0 avocados for a little more research.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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A year ago I saw some references to\u00a0 avocados\u00a0 giving a delicate pink colour without the use of any additional mordants, relying on the tannin\u00a0 contained within the stone or skins, I was fascinated and\u00a0 shortly gave it a test. There were several methods advocated , generally long soaks in water and ammonia mixes\u00a0 perhaps … Continue reading “Avocado dyeing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,15,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}