Dyeing Pink with Avocado — The Surprising Blush from Pits and Skins

Use 6-8 avocado pits and their corresponding skins for 100 g of wool. Save pits and skins from everyday cooking — wash off any remaining flesh and store in the freezer until you have enough. Pits can be used whole or chopped into quarters to speed extraction. Skins should be cut into strips. Both pits and skins contribute to the colour, but pits are the primary dye source. The pits should be fresh — old dried pits that have turned very dark may have already oxidised and give weaker colour.

Place the pits and skins in a dye pot with 4 litres of water. Bring slowly to 80°C and hold for 60-90 minutes. Stir occasionally. The water will gradually change colour — first pale amber, then deeper orange, and finally a reddish-pink as the tannins oxidise. Avocado pits are dense and release dye slowly — patience is essential. The longer the simmer (within reason), the deeper the pink. Do not boil — gentle heat produces the cleanest pink tones.

Strain the dye liquor through a fine mesh strainer into a clean pot. Remove and discard the pits and skins. Skin fragments especially can stick to wool and cause uneven spots. The strained liquor should be a warm reddish-pink to salmon tone — the colour that will transfer to the wool.

Pre-wet the alum-mordanted wool in lukewarm water for 15 minutes, squeeze gently, and lower it into the avocado dye bath at room temperature. Slowly raise to 75-80°C over 20 minutes, then hold for 60 minutes. Turn gently every 10 minutes. The wool will develop a soft, warm pink — ranging from pale blush to deeper salmon depending on the number of pits used and the length of extraction. Alum mordanting produces the clearest, most vivid pink. Un-mordanted wool gives a more muted, brownish-pink.

Turn off the heat and let the wool cool in the dye bath overnight — the pink deepens during cooling. Remove, squeeze gently, and rinse in lukewarm water until the runoff is clear. The final colour is a soft, warm pink — somewhere between blush and salmon, with a peach undertone. This is one of the few truly pink plant dyes achievable without chemical modifiers. Lightfastness is moderate — the pink will gradually soften with prolonged sunlight exposure but retains a warm tone rather than greying. Washfastness is good due to the tannin-fibre bond. Dry in shade.