A Great Fall Project for Kids and Crafters: How to Make Natural Yarn and Fabric Dye from Black Walnuts

If you have black walnut trees on your property, then you know that they can produce a lot of nuts. During September and early October, at least in the Northeast, these nuts, covered with a thick fleshy green husk, litter the lawn and the street. After a rain or two, the husks become brown, mushy and slippery. Inside each thick fleshy husk is a hard brown nut.

Black walnuts are delicious, but the process of harvesting, hulling, cracking (they are extremely hard to crack), drying, curing and storing them is more work than many people will want to tackle. So what else can you do with these nuts when they cover your yard or driveway?

A great use for black walnuts and a great project for kids and for adults who like to sew, spin, weave, knit, crochet and work with fibers, is based in a unique property of the husk, rather than the nut: Black walnut husks are legendary for producing a remarkably beautiful dye.

Dyeing fabric or yarn with black walnut is easy but messy and thus it is best done out-of-doors. Most important: through all stages of this project, you must wear protective waterproof gloves! Otherwise your hands will be stained for weeks! Also, be sure to wear protective clothing, because dye spatters will created permanent stains on just about every kind of porous surface.

Collect nuts which have fallen from your black walnut tree. Black walnuts, including the hulls are about halfway between golf balls and baseballs in size. The hulls are a yellow-green when the nuts first fall but within a short time they begin to turn brown and mushy. You can collect black walnuts at all stages, hard and mushy. You will not need many, perhaps fifteen or twenty. As you pick them up check that your hulls, especially those that are soft and brown, are free from maggots-- small white worms which are commonly found in black walnut hulls.

Place the nuts in a large vat or basin with hot water and let them soak for several days. You will begin to see the water take on color from the hull. Initially, it may be a greenish gold. It will soon turn a lovely greenish-goldish mustardy brown. You can use it as a dye at any stage, but the darker it is, the permanent your dye will be. When you are ready to try the color, skim out the nuts with a large singe-handled strainer and set them aside in a bowl (in case you want to soak them some more for a more intense color). Place white or undyed yarn, cotton fabric or clothing, or any undyed natural fiber item in the vat and stir it . The longer you leave the item in, the darker the final color will be. If you dye an unraveled skein of yarn, you will get the most beautiful varying color which may range from a greenish yellow to a golden tan or golden brown. When you want to stop the dying, remove the item and let dry. Discard the nuts and the dye when you are finished.

To avoid getting husk residue and particles in your wool or fabric, some dyers advise tying up the nuts in nylon stockings or a old pillow case for soaking in the vat. That way, you can also pull them out easily.

Remember-- the dye is poisonous and very staining. Care must also be taken to keep the it away from one's eyes.

With that said, the results are lovely and well worth trying.