Dyeing Yarn with Black Walnuts

A couple of weeks ago, we went camping in Cherokee, NC. Right next to our site was a Black Walnut tree and the nuts were dropping all around. My husband talked me into collecting some and bringing them home so I could try dyeing some yarn with them. I filled a bag with them because I didn’t know how many I would need.

Then I went online to see if other people had done this. I found Practical Primitive and FiberArtsy. After looking at what they did, I thought I would also write about what I did.

1.     The main thing I did was wear disposable rubber gloves. Everything I read about talks about how these things stain everything so I was very careful!

2.     I put the walnuts on my back steps and cracked them with the hammer.

3.     Then I put everything in a paper bag until I was ready to work with them. I was going to dye another day but then couldn’t resist so they didn’t stay in the bag long.

4.     I soaked my yarn in water with vinegar and soap. It soaked for about an hour while I made the dyebath.

5.     I put the nuts and hulls in cheesecloth and tied off the ends.

6.     I put the cheesecloth ball in my enamel dye pot and covered it with water.

7.     I covered the pot and brought the water to a boil.

8.     Then I let it simmer for an hour on low heat.

9.     At the end of the hour, I used a wooden spoon (that I only use for dyeing yarn) and pulled the cheesecloth bag out of the water and threw it away.

10.  Next I got the wet yarn and squeezed the excess water out of each skein.

11.  I gently lowered the yarn in the dyebath and simmered it on low for another hour.

12.  After the hour, I took the pot outside and let it cool.

13.  Once cool, I rinsed the yarn out to remove any excess dye.

14.  Then I hung up the yarn to dry.

15.  I poured the left-over dye in containers for later use.

Things I learned:

·      I really liked the lovely brown color that the yarn is now.

·      It was easy to do and would do this again when I need brown yarn.

·      I don’t think I needed as many black walnuts as I used. I had 15 and I probably could have used about 6. That is something I would like to experiment with next time to see if the color varies with less nuts.

Have you ever dyed with black walnuts or any other nuts? Please share.

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