- Dyeing to get home

As you may recall, I left 12 canning jars and a copper pot full of dyestuff before hitting the road two weeks ago.

2500 miles later (San Marcos to Lubbock to Santa Fe to Oklahoma City to St. Louis to Tulsa to Fort Worth and finally back to San Marcos), this is what was waiting for me ...

I learned a thing or two as I opened the jars: 

• rot happens (so point the jar away from you as you open it)
• stuff swells (so don't pack the jar too tight, especially if it has a narrow neck)
• numbering is helpful (so write numbers in permanent ink on cloth before dyeing)

As a reminder, here's what I put in each jar:

1. Dried avocado pits (unbroken) wrapped in copper wire
2. Broken avocado pits wrapped in steel wire
3. Dried avocado skins wrapped in copper wire
4. Dried avocado skins wrapped in steel wire
5. Yellow onion skins wrapped in copper wire
6. Yellow onion skins wrapped in steel wire
7. Red onion skins wrapped in copper wire
8. Red onion skins wrapped in steel wire
9. Dried avocado pits wrapped in twine, with 1 tsp grocery alum 
10. Dried avocado skins wrapped in twine, with 1 tsp grocery alum  
11. Yellow onion skins wrapped in twine, with 1 tsp grocery alum  
12. Red onion skins wrapped in twine, with 1 tsp grocery alum 

Too impatient to wait until they were fully washed and dried, I did take preliminary pictures of the cloth in jars 1-7 ... 

and 8-12 ...

They are now in the washer, so a fuller accounting will be made when they are a bit more presentable and the lighting a bit more consistent.

To be continued ...