We have a walnut tree. The birds planted it in our garden… Very visionary, forward-thinking, clever guys…
Every year in July it drops some unripe fruits: green walnuts with their husks. They smell so nice… Last year we made ‘vin aux noix’ from them. But this year I wanted to give dyeing a try.
I put them inside a fabric bag and left them in water for two days. The water turned rather quickly in a dark brown color.
After removing the bag with the husks, just the liquid dye was left. I soaked the yarn (500 grs of undyed wool DK weight). The yarn doesn’t need to be mordanted. Yarn and dye go in a large pot and it is warming up to a light boil. It kept simmering just below cooking point for half an hour.
Left it to cool down completely and kept it in the dye for another day.
I didn’t rinse them because I am thinking to overdye them later with more walnut husks.
It became a very nice, warm, reddish pale brown.
I will try this again, definitely and maybe I will overdye them later to get a darker color.
ALFAKNITS 