Dye yarn with avocado

I've seen quite a few pictures of avocado dyed yarn on the web with more or less nice pink/beige/light brown colors, but you can also get a nice pink-salmon tone, which I think is much more beautiful. It's pretty easy, so just get started.

I had been collecting avocado stones and shells for a while and kept them in the freezer. Unfortunately, I didn't take the trouble to clean the shells before I froze them, so I had to start cleaning the shells before they could be used for dyeing. I used a tablespoon to scrape out the meat, leaving as little residue as possible. The more pulp that is left on the skins, the more brownish the color becomes. And I'm not particularly interested in brown. I dream of pink and possibly salmon colored.

The avocado stones color more pink than the shells, which in turn color more yellowish. I therefore made two color baths with stones and shells and each separately.

I put the stones in the pot with tap water in a 4 liter pot and the same with the shells (I have two identical pots). Both dye baths were heated slowly and only allowed to simmer. I would avoid boiling the dye bath as that may promote a browner tone. After simmering for an hour, the dye baths were allowed to rest until the next day.

I useed three types of yarn in each experiment. A Norwegian wool yarn, an Australian wool yarn and a slightly loose wool yarn from Lithuania. The last yarn has been treated with alum. The other two were not, but I have used the Norwegian in particular many times, and it works super well for dyeing even without alun. The avocado stones in contain tannin, which is acid, and therefore you do not need to use alun treated yarn.

Stones and shells were taken out of the two dye baths and a batch of yarn for each pot was soaked in water for half an hour and then lifted into the pots. The yarn was allowed to simmer for an hour and afterwards the yarn was kept in the dye bath until the next day. Then rinsed and hung to dry. You can also wait to rinse the yarn until it is dry, then a little more color may settle, but I am satisfied with a slightly lighter color with a nice glow. I was a little nervous letting the yarn hang with leftovers from the dye bath on it. Again, so that the oxygenation does not give a brownish tone.

The yarn from the dye bath made on the avocado stones has given really nice pink tones, while the yarn from the dye bath made on the shells has become more yellowish and not particularly exciting. But it is really fun to see that there is a big difference in tone depending on whether the dye bath is made on stones or shells. In the future I think I will only collect stones for coloring. They also take up less space in the freezer.

You can add a little baking powder to the dye bath, which then becomes more alkaline and more pink. I have therefore tried this with the remains of the dye bath made on the stones. Here the two dye baths can be seen and it looks as if the dye bath with baking powder has become redder and in any case darker.

The same yarns was dyed in the dye bath with baking powder added, but since it was the second dyeing in the bath, the color became a little lighter, even if the dye bath is very dark after baking powder has been added. However, the tone is pink/pink like the first bath and actually some really nice pink shades came out of it.

When the yarn is completely dry, you can dye it again, and the color becomes more saturated but retains the beautiful pink tone.

TIP
You don't have to bother with cutting the stones into pieces, which can be a little difficult. They fall apart when heated in the dye bath.