More About those walnuts

There are so many walnuts to me to work with, which means I have a little wiggle room with playing with the brown tones in the dye bath. Obviously, we also have eaten a lot of walnuts in the past few years that we’ve lived here, but right now, I am more focused on getting them simmering over the fire and figuring out how to get the most color to stay in the fiber, and even put in a few additions to see what changes I can introduce. By introducing Copper, Iron, and changing the number of Black Walnuts in the bath, a lot of tones can be created. Wish me luck!

The Walnuts are falling

Watch out! It’s no joke when those Black Walnuts hit the ground in fall. I’m not always toting something for picking them up either, so in the picture - that is my shirt that held quite a few as you can see. It’s basically a Fall easter egg hunt, and you might miss some because they are green! Last year, I did a dry run of a super small batch of 8/2 weaving yarns dyed in black walnut that I am using currently in one of my designs. This year, I have dyed a larger batch of that same yarn in addition to gorgeous Alpaca where I ended up with a gorgeous brown. I will create a photo gallery here soon to show more of the process, including the design that I have incorporated some of the 8/2 weaving yarn into already. Stay tuned for More on the Black Walnut Dye.

Iron, Wingstem, & Heat

After initially playing with Wingstem, I decided to add Iron to the same dye bath, and I might have accidentally put in too much. It made an intense dark green with heat, and I fell in love all with it all over again. In the future, I will be making my own iron solution, but for now I bought a granular mix that you add to your dye. I’ve since learned that you can go overboard with Iron and still love the result. Next up, #4 - Black Walnuts!

Golden Rod & spiceBush

Plant #2 & #3 are Golden Rod & Spicebush. For this one, I took the gorgeous brilliant yellow blooms from the Golden Rod and mixed it with about a million fallen Spicebush leaves in September. Once I filled a pot with the mix, I covered it with water and let it sit overnight until I had a fire for it to simmer on the next day. They just made a beautiful amber color in the pot, and I would say a golden yellow on the Cotton/Hemp 8/2 Yarn. In my next post, when I dyed with Golden Rod on its own, it seemed a bit more unstable on the fiber, was splotchy, so I will work on that next time around. In the next post, I play by added Iron to a Wingstem dye bath to see what changes I get.

Plant #1 - Wingstem

I must confess, these first few entries are me catching up with myself on the plants, nuts, and flowers that I have used to date in my color exploration. I got so excited, I started dyeing everything with within reach and lost track of what I’d done. Moving forward I will ATTEMPT to take notes and create some loose color recipes, but I’m just having fun this fall harvesting, tending fires, preparing fiber and hoping that it all creates something magical in the end. Plus, it’s very therapeutic for me.

Plant #1 - Wingstem - It grows along the border of my property, and the last few weeks has been enjoyed by myself, ladybugs and honeybees alike. I have of course decided that because I love color and insects equally, I will leave plenty behind for them to enjoy.

I put the Wingstem blossoms and stems into a pot and soaked them in the sun for several days. This time period - although somewhat accidental - created a gorgeous medium yellow in the pot. I believe that I prepared both of the following yarns in a heated dye bath. These were Skeins of Cotton/Hemp - 8/2 Weaving Yarn, alongside an adorable fluffy thick Teddy Bear Wool Yarn. Both created a gorgeous pale yellow as shown. Seeing the change from the natural fiber to the gorgeous yellows, is how I quickly became a mad scientist with too many cooking pots. Stay tuned for Plant #2 - Golden Rod!

What Took me so long?

It’s taken me years to get here, and by here, I mean creating color from what my own backyard has to offer me. Now that I’ve gotten here, I can’t pass a field of weeds, flowers, or flowering trees without wondering what shades of dye it will produce. I can’t take a walk outside, without hearing the Black Walnuts make a thud as they hit the ground in the fall, and wonder if I will be able find them all. A few nights ago, I actually dreamed, that I came across 2 old cooking pots that I didn’t even know I had, and I was so excited - that was two more dye pots for the fire. Unfortunately, when I woke up, I was still stuck with just four stainless steel cooking pots.

And since moving to our latest home, we are learning that we have some edible trees/bushes here, as well as many more worth exploring for color. I also love to photograph the bees, butterflies and more as they find their favorite plants throughout the property. This is just a place for me to share some of my adventures in dyeing, photography, and craft design. I hope you will join me or check in on occasion to see what inspires me to create the designs that you will find here, and in my Etsy Shop.