Onion & Avocado: Colours from Scraps

Avocado peel dye (left) and onion peel dye (right), with some over-dyed. Shown on wool top for hand-spinning, and on silk-mohair as a companion yarn.

It’s almost spring, and the light feels stronger every day. After my walk after work, I’ve been sitting at my desk looking out at the blue sky, crisp air, and bright sunshine. Perfect weather for dreaming about colours.

My latest dye projects have been with the humblest of things: onion peels and avocado skins. Scraps you’d usually throw in the compost. Yet they’ve given me the most stunning colours.

The avocado peel gave a soft, delicate pink. The onion peel gave a rich, rusty-gold, with sienna tones that remind me of sunset, or of the Correa flower with its orange and yellow bells. When I used them together as an over-dye, the shades deepened again, layers of colour from layers of scraps.

What amazes me is how these “waste” things, by-products of suppers, hold such beauty. An avocado peel that grew on a tree for a year, an onion skin grown deep in the ground, both can still give more, even after feeding us. Food for people, food for worms, food for bees, and now, colour for wool.

It feels like a small circle of the circular economy right here in my dye pot. Nothing wasted. Everything with a little more life to give.

And I’m so happy with these colours, warm, glowing, unexpected - just right for the season turning toward spring.

Mini Instructions: Onion & Avocado Dye

• Save and dry avocado skins and onion peels.

• Simmer separately in water to release the colour.

• Strain out the peels and add pre-mordanted wool.

• For soft pinks, use avocado. For golden rusts, use onion.

• Try over-dyeing: first in avocado, then in onion (or the other way around) for deeper, layered shades.