Yarn, burnt and unburnt, colored by refrigerated antiquities

Here is a variety of dye experiments: onion wool, onion cotton (another blog, another day), a burned poke berry wool, blueberry juice wool, and icky sugar-free preserves-dyed wool, followed by smelly red poke berries. The two last hanks, on the right, were an old juice in the fridge that was about a year old, sitting quietly on the unused bottom shelf of the fridge. The preserves weren't all that, they were probably a couple years older, and I was about to toss them when I cleaned out said neglected fridge, but was in a mad mood to see what colors they could make. I should try the encrusted bottle of grenadine next. Another blog, another day.

Poke Berries 2

Poke Berry before and after.
Last time I tried to dye yarn with Poke Berries I ended up burning the yarn in a few places. I wanted to dye only half of the yarn, for a variegated color. When I would this yarn it came apart in those burned places. I tied them up where they broke off. The yarn had been through a pair of boilings. At first it was deep burgundy like the robes of the wealthy cardinals in those baroque paintings. After a mordanting boil I had this girly fuchsia hue, and a brown in between the fuchsia and cream (the original yarn color, from the Lion Fisherman's Wool). I saved the cooked dye bath from the first try, and combined with with a half pound of poke berries from my fridge. I got a warm pale brown variegated with a rosier light brown. It was like a valentine heart with milk chocolate inside. I also dipped four whole skeins in which became this burnt red brown. It was like a warm red that forgot how to BE red.
The color change? I think it was since I used vinegar and mordanted the wool before I put it in the dye bath. The pre-boiled bath also affected the color I'm sure.
Having picked a few more berries, I will try a pre-mordanted version with an all-new dye bath. Same recipe! This was from the Krochmal book.