What Is That Smell?

My newest toy! It is a 28-quart turkey fryer/steamer. It is electric with digital controls. I was going to buy one of those big propane kind on a stand that has to be done outdoors. But when I found this one-there was no question. It can be used indoors, and it has a spigot to drain the pot.
So no lifting the thing to drain the pot. It's like a giant crockpot. So I am initiating it! A dye pot that will hold 8 ozs of wool easily. None of this fussy cooking 2 ozs in a regular dye pot. The only catch-I have to stand on a ladder to see the controls. I have already set the temp and it got there in about 15-20 mins. So while the dye pot is cooking, I turned it off for a while.

Yes-sir-ree-bob! It's marigolds!! I know I am not the only person in the world who puts flowers in the deep freeze until there is enough for a dye pot. But it has been a long time since I have actually made a dye pot from scratch. And I forgot that the smell of boiling flowers is really pungent. Thank goodness it is not a stinky dye pot. I have made a few of those.

This is too exciting! I can't hardly wait. I will report back the results. I always set my standards low on natural dye pots, since I am not a chemist and never-ever measure accurately.
I never can duplicate the darn things. I did measure the amount of water to put into the big pot. And I will measure the amount of alum/cream of tartar to use for mordant. But from there it is a guess. I could not tell you the amount of flowers I am cooking. I know I will use 8 ozs of wool as my test run. That's it! There are a few correopsis in this mess, but 90 percent is marigold.

So stay tuned! It is surely getting exciting around here!