Walnut Husk Wool Dye

The beautiful rusty orange colour above is the result of my walnut husk dye project.

My great grandmother ran an orchard in Trout Creek that my family visited when I was younger. Among the cherries, apples, plums, and pears there were also walnut and hazelnut trees. I remember going out to visit in the fall when the walnuts were ready and seeing my great grandmother's hands were stained brown from removing the green hulls that encased the walnuts.
My Grandma has now taken over the orchard and the family still delights in the fruit and one of a kind "spencer" apples my great grandfather created when he worked at the Summerland research station.
This year when the walnuts began to fall from the tree, I asked if I could have the hulls. The hulls are not useful in any way to my grandma, in fact they're a bit of a nuisance because they are not allowed in the compost. Walnut husks have a chemical in them that kills off some plants, they're also not good to keep on the ground because they kill the grass too.
So she happily bagged up a whole bunch of the hulls and gave them to me to use as a dye. I figured if they dye your skin then they must dye wool quite well and it did!

I took one bag of the walnut hulls (I didn't weigh them) I put them in a nylon sock and soaked them in water for 3 days.
I washed my raw wool in three baths of detergent (greasy wool is not meant to dye well) I then boiled the water with the husks and 1 tbsp of alum for about half an hour. After I took it off the heat I took out the husks, strained the water and put the wool into the dye solution. I left the wool in overnight.
After taking the wool out I soaked it in a vinegar/water solution, rinsed and air dried.


Here's a picture of the hulls in the bag after I took them out of the freezer (freezing them keeps them from getting moldy)