I went out to help with the local organic food co-op recently and came home with walnuts from the local food forest produce swap, with the nuts soon ready for eating and the hulls ready for dyeing:
In the bucket, ready for their three week soak/fermentation:
Post soaking and ready for the heat:
With the application of heat, the dye bath grew darker still. So in went my remaining suffolk fleece. It was with deep relief that I assessed the (acceptable though not delectable) smell of the dye bath. It was a walnut dye bath that almost had me excommunicated from my Guild for cooking it up in the dye room when the Little Glory Gallery was open. Ahem!
Here is weld growing in the vegie patch:
One of my plants wilted and fell over for no obvious reason, so I cut it out and set it to dry. I wondered if something has nibbled on its roots from below ground. Some days later I went out and found that the rest of the plant had died. This time it is obvious that the main root has been chewed on or rotted away. Curious. I followed Jenny Dean’s instructions (more or less…) and due to lack of time, left the dye bath to sit for some days.
Mum saved me her purple fountain grass–a whole wheelbarrow load. I saw a post on Ravelry where a lovely green came from this plant just about when she was planning to cut hers back. This was exciting! For me, however–it gave only a fawn colour. Sadly!
Here is the walnut dye on the left and the fountain grass on the right. It is a little more yellow-brown in life, but nothing exciting. It went into the walnut exhaust.
I now have two shades of brown Suffolk and some weld-yellow crossbred fleece ready to join a future colour knitting project. May the rinsing begin!
Local & Bespoke 