Dyeing Wool with Black Walnuts

I love this time of the year. The days are clear, dry, and warm (high 60's-low 70's), but not hot. Bugs are not as bothersome as in summer. Colors are starting to pop on the trees and in the hedgerows. My kind of weather. I wish fall could last for many months. It is perfect for dyeing on the deck. I can have a fire, bring my wheel outside and cook away! My husband, Clint, cut lots more firewood for me on Sunday. I am currently spinning a wool/mohair fiber that I dyed earlier. The colors are blended together on a drum carder using wool dyed with lichen, mullein, and onion skins.

I found a great source for Black Walnuts Saturday. I found a tree that was dropping walnuts like rain! You have to accept getting hit in the head a few times in payment to the tree for taking her fruit, but it was well worth the trouble (and discomfort...). Within about 15 minutes I had collected more than enough walnuts to use for a class will be teaching as well as to dye plenty of wool for myself. I got them home and stowed them safely away for the night. The next day, I got started.

If you wish to dye with the whole thing, nut and hull, you can place them in a dye pot right away. Make a layer on the bottom of the pot and cover with water. Boil for a couple hours, watching and adding water as needed. then cool, drain, and there is your dye bath. Add enough extra water to this to allow your wool/yarn to move freely in the pot. You don't even have to mordant the wool for dyeing with walnuts, although, you may be able to create different colors if you do.

Walnuts are hard to store in the hulls. They have to be carefully dried to prevent them from developing mold. Also, they need to be constantly guarded from squirrels and other critters that consider them groceries. Because of this, I prefer to use dried walnut hulls. This also allows me to boil up a dye bath any time of year. Hulling the walnuts can be done quite easily with an old hammer, or a stone, and a board. Simply hit the nuts with the hammer and peel the nut out of the hull. The hull is what is then used to dye with.


I filled a dye pot about half full of walnut hulls and covered them with water. I added more water to bring the level to about 3/4 full. I boiled these for two hours. After that time, I removed the pot from the heat and let the hulls steep over night. I also mordanted one pound of wool with alum and Cream of Tarter in the usual way, simmering for an hour and then cooling in the liquid.

 I had some Chicken of the Woods that I wanted to try dyeing with. For this, I mordanted half a pound of wool in a 10% ammonia mordant. I let this sit in the mordant for several hours. I did not heat it. I removed the wool from the mordant and rinsed it well with clear water. I then added the wool to the dye bath I had made earlier by boiling the mushrooms in water and straining. I was disappointed with the result,  there was little color change. I let this sit over night with no improvement. I rinsed the wool with clear water and decided to over dye it in the walnut dye bath to see how the ammonia mordant would react.

After soaking over night, I strained the dye liquid from the walnut hulls. I decided to add the wool with the ammonia mordant first. I placed the wool in the dye pot and simmered this for a couple of hours. Then I left it to steep and cool. The result was a warm, rich brown. The wool was wonderfully soft. I was concerned with the use of ammonia, but it really doesn't hurt the wool.

I then rinsed the alum mordanted wool and cooled the dyebath so I could add the new wool. I let that simmer for two hours as well. I left it to cool and steep overnight. The next day, I removed it from the pot and washed it with Eucalan Wool Wash. The color is basically the same as the wool mordanted with ammonia, but a bit lighter and more golden.

(The two darker pieces on the end are done with ammonia).

I have the walnuts used for this dye bath soaking in more water. I plan to leave them for a few days and then heat them and let them cool again to see how much color they will produce.I am not sure whether the lighter shade in the second bath is due to the mordant or just that it is the second run in the dye bath. I have a lot more walnuts, wool, mordant, and time to see what colors I can create!