Making Due

I've been very busy in the dye kitchen.  There's not a lot of plant material to work with right now, but I'm making due.  I've been reading India Flint's book "Eco Color".  It's a truly inspired book.  It's somewhere between a manual and a manifesto.  The coffee table like design and photography are dreamy.  She has a chapter on ice flower dyeing that I found very exciting. Now, I'm happily tossing all of my purple pansies in the fridge.

Pansies from the garden.

In another attempt to make due I've been washing and chopping up my avocado pits and peels and chucking them in the freezer.  When I have a good amount I'll make up a jar with some ammonia.

Avocado pits and peels from the freezer.

Speaking of ammonia fermentation.  Here's a shot of my yellow lichen ferment.  It's gone from brick red to magenta pink.  I finally got a copy of a lichen identification book.  This yellow lichen is better know as "xanthoria parietina".  I'll have to get dyeing soon.

Xanthoria Parietina fermentation.

In the mean time, I've been mordanting roving.  Spring is right around the corner and I want to be ready.

Wool drying on the line.