while you're ahead…

… avocados and fire service… is there a link I hear you asking yourselves.. read on, my friends, read on.

For the past couple of days I’ve been experimenting with dyeing fabric and wool with avocado skins and pits.  I put aside a couple of items, a linen top, a skein of dk wool, a strip of muslin for a scarf.  On the first day I scoured all the fabric items with soda ash, then I soaked them overnight in an alum bath and yesterday I got out the huge bag of skins and pits that was taking over my fridge and got to the fun part.

First up the wool.  Because of the high tanning content of the avocado I read that there was no need to mordant the wool… we’ll see how colour fast it is in a few months but for now.. ta daaaaaaa

the dreamiest, creamiest of pale pinks.

Then I dipped the linen top in another bath (the wool had only pits) with only avocado skin to see if there was a difference, but there wasn’t really.

The colour is slightly mottled here and there but I like that.  I’m wearing it today and love it.  I feel it has more soul, which is totally bizarre … clothes with souls? … but yes, I’m feeling it.

All the avocados I used were the ones with the very dark skin… I wonder if i’d have got a deeper colour with the green skin avocados.

And the scarf?

Well, the scarf was dipped into the dye bath after dinner last night… slow heat, extra skins because I was looking for a darker colour…

… and then I forgot all about it… I mean… completely forgot… so that when the fire alarm started going off at 4.05am I just couldn’t work out what the smell and smoke were all about… I mean… the kitchen door was shut and there was nothing in the oven or on the cooker, right?  It was only when Mr M asked me if I’d left a candle on downstairs then I remembered.

It wasn’t a candle… but rather a charred scarf and a whole bunch of burnt avocado and pits in a now defunct pot.

Oh man the smell…

I took the ‘thing’ outside, open all the window and then had to face two very bemused firemen (actually one was a very sweet firewoman) who couldn’t understand why would anyone ‘cook’ avocado with fabric.

So at 4.32am i stood in the basement kitchen in my nightgown explaining avocado dyeing and dying of embarrassment.  Seriously… what a waste of their time, right?

Mr M is not too pleased with me at all, the house stinks of smoke (any suggestions for getting rid of the stench PLEASE… we have all the windows open and I’m going around dusting all the surfaces and next I’ll hoover the carpet but it’s a really cloying smell, sticks to the back of your throat, and we have people for dinner tonight…) and I feel really bad.  And sleep deprived.  And an idiot.

And the scarf is ruined.