That said, they make a very nice warm chocolate brown on wool with out much fuss or muss and there is the added bonus of having some tasty food as a side benefit... brownies with walnuts any one?
There are three really good ways I have read to deal with separating the husks from the nuts.
1. Find a walnut tree on a gravel road, passing cars will run over the nuts squishing off the hulls and leaving the nuts intact.
2. Take a 1x4 board and drill out a walnut sized hole. Center the nut and hit it though the hole with a hammer, ideally, dropping the nut into a bucket and leaving the husk behind for your dyeing adventures.
3. Find shoes you don't care about being stained and a piece of concrete or asfault that will also get stained. Lay the nuts on the ground and roll your foot across them, one at a time, till the husk separates fron the nut.
You have now, hopefully, been adequately warned that these things STAIN! Yes? and you will listen and beware, and wear gloves from the moment you pick them up off the ground! Okay? Now to take advantage of that wonderful staining feature.
- de-husk walnuts
- weight up 400g of husks and chop up roughly
- soak covered in water for 4 hours
- mordent 45 g wool 10 g cotton in 25% alum to fiber weight, on low
- wring out wool and cotton and submerge and simmer for 1 hour in enameled pot
- wring out the next morning
- hang to dry for a day
- wash till water runs clear
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| Cotton, wool dyed with walnut husks |
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