Black beans in Tales from the Spinning Siren

Black beans are soaking. I actually got red beans too and was going to soak those to see what happens. Someone best eat all these beans or i wasted 4 dollars on the beans? lol. I wont cry. But maybe ill make chili or something out of all of them. I realized you have got to at least DOUBLE the water that goes into the beans from them swelling. I used a gallon juice jug and filled about 3 fingers of water higher then the beans. Then the swelled up haha. I filled it up to the top. So notes to follow! Other plants i know work REALLY excellent is marigold. But i dont have any marigolds growing down here. So im looking for other foods. Maybe ill try boiling purple cabbage again. I wish i had lists of plants that grew here that worked for dye other then green and grey lol!

I also tried my hand at degumming silk. Silk worms form a cocoon and the cocoon is harvested. THAT is the silk! You can do two types of silk harvesting. One prior to the silk butterfly emerging and one after. Because i cried at the thought of the silk worms being killed for their silk i prefer to think this silk was harvested after.... Yes i know, a worm… But im… like… do things humanely if you can. I guess it kills a bit of my heart to know something dies just for me to spin a yarn you know. All my wool is ethically harvested without harming an animal. A worm should be no different.

Anyway, degumming is removing the outer casing on the silk. It makes it duller, stiffer ect. So you are supposed to boil it in a mild soap of some kind. I used borax, Which left the silk feeling stiff after it dried BUT as i pulled it open it softened up. Some silk is a bit yellowish and degumming is supposed to help. It remains to be seen.

See all the creamy colored water? Yuck lol. I only did 1 oz of the silk to see what happened. Ill have to update at a later time.
I also dyed a bit of it. Its still in the dye water :) So i figured ill share that haha.

Tomorrow ill dye in the black bean water! Maybe a bit of silk to see what happens and some wool! Silk is a dye hog, so hopefully i can do more then just some silk in that dye color.