This craft at least is actually related to knitting. I ended up needing two blood transfusions back in March (thank you, anonymous donors!) and was still severely anemic, so for quite some time I was eating lots of iron rich foods. Among them, black beans. Beans, of course, have to be soaked before cooking, resulting in some really dark water.
After I don't know how many pots of black beans, I started to wonder if wool would take up the color. I know, it is not a pretty color, but it was something edible (so I could use it in my kitchen) and it was already available. Long story short, don't use vinegar as a mordant, use alum. The high pH itself turns the water from black to purple.
And then the yarn ends up with a pretty gray-blue color, that I certainly did not expect. Here are the before and after pictures.
I am only hoping it lasts, because the Serratia marcescens yarn I dyed last Summer has faded to almost white by now.
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