Clun Forest Walnut Dye

This past fall I was given a bag of walnuts from a tree that was felled in Brantford.  I used some & left others soak for a few months. They froze into a solid mass in a 5 gallon pail on my deck. When my hubby decided to get rid of them I decided it might be time to carry through with the project I began those many weeks ago.

I have Clun Forest roving that is very white that would suit the mittens I would like to make as a thank you gift for the walnuts received for the last couple of years to the lady that had the tree.

I have a young walnut tree on the property that only this past season has yielded any walnuts. I was very pleased to have gathered 8 this past fall.

Here it is in pictures.

White Clun Forest roving from ' fibregarden.ca '.

Roving added to dyepot in netting for easy handling.

Starting to take the colour. Temperature being raised to 180F then turned off to soak.

Time to remove the wool.

Draining in sink; ready for rinsing.

Rinsed, spun, ready to hang for drying.

 When this is dry I will show the spinning part of the project.

Overdyeing Woad Dyed Suffolk Skeins

Finished Skeins. Acid Overdyed.

Plain Woad before. Dull.

Using Greener Shades Acid Dyes.
Suffolk skeins soaked 15 min. in warm water with a little Synthrapol.
Added citric acid solution to the soaking skeins.
Used litmus paper to be sure the water was at the correct acid level.

The individual shades & tints were prepared in small plastic cups and applied to the skeins in pot with 1-1 1/2" water using plastic syringe. This is the same water the skeins were soaked in.
The water was brought to 170-180 degrees (steaming, not boiling) and held there for 20 minutes or until the dyes were exhausted & the water was clear.
The skeins were left to cool completely before being rinsed.

All the prepared colours were used. Colours were mixed using River Blue, Ruby Red and Black. Shade & tints from .5 DOS to 4 DOS. (Depth of Shade).
The darkest colour I was aiming for was a deep violet. It was very dark almost black. I would have liked to have had more woad remaining, but overall the results were better than the plain woad before. This is destined for mittens.