Here we have about 170g of cotton that I cooked, twice, in some washing soda and dish soap. Commercial cotton yarn contains sizing that has to be cooked out if you want to dye it.

After scouring, the cotton needs a mordant. I used about 5% (of the fiber weight) of aluminum acetate. You don’t need to boil the cotton - just put it and the dissolved mordant into a bucket filled with hot tap water, and let it sit for about an hour. After that, I added about 5% (of the fiber weight) of calcium carbonate, stirred it, and let it sit overnight.

But I was curious about how much I had. It is just under half of the weight of my fiber.

I don’t have that much fiber, so I will make a nice, thick dye.

The house smells like French onion soup. My family is so relieved when I say that I am making onion dye and not cabbage dye.

I am hoping for a deep orange.

This is promising - the yarn is already taking color after only a few seconds.

Hopes are high! We shall see what rinsing and drying brings. Cotton does tend to darken after it dries.