Dyeing with Acorns and Walnuts: From Forest to Fiber

a strainer full of boiled acorns and walnuts

Natural dyeing with acorns and walnuts produces lovely tans, browns, grays, and blacks. Join me as I take you through the process. My property is filled with oak trees, so acorns are not hard for me to find. They are one of the first natural dyes I learned to extract. Walnuts produce a very similar dye to acorns, when pigment is extracted from the green outer hull. Both nuts create brown, with acorns leaning more tan, and walnuts leaning more red, in my experience. In this project, I combined acorns and walnuts, both leftover from previous dye pots. These nuts contain a lot of pigment! I used leftovers, but you can get beautiful results with freshly foraged nuts.

samples of fabrics and yarns dyed with acorns and walnuts

If browns and tans seem boring to you, remember that they can be a great base for overdyeing. I particularly like tan overdyed with indigo. It shifts the primary blue of indigo dye into something darker, and a little more like teal. Browns and tans can also be shifted to grays and blacks with a dip in an iron bath. Read on to learn!

wool and yarn dyed with acorns and walnuts — wool dyed with (clockwise from top left:) 1. walnuts; 2. weld, acorns, and walnuts; 3. acorns and iron; 4. walnuts and indigo

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Making the Acorn and Walnut Dyebath

Dyeing with acorns and walnuts both require the same basic process. Begin by foraging fresh acorns or walnuts. The green hull of the walnuts is what contains the dye, so if you want, you can peel off the hull and save the nut for food. If the hull is slightly black, that is ok, but may produce a slightly more faded color.

You need to consider the weight of the fibers you’d like to dye, and how deep of a shade you want to achieve. You will weigh out your nuts based on a percentage of the weight of your fiber. Here are some suggested ratios:

For a strong brown shade from walnuts, most dye tutorials suggest using about 200% the weight of your fiber. So for example, if you want to dye a 4oz skein of yarn, you would use 8oz of walnuts. To be honest, I’ve never weighed walnuts or acorns. In the past I have used two plastic grocery bags full of walnuts to dye about 1.5 pounds of fabric and a skein of yarn a rich chocolate color. Then I re-used the walnuts to dye about 1.5 pounds of wool a pale brown. If you happen upon some walnuts, I suggest collecting a bucketful or shopping bag full, or more. You will have plenty of dye for several projects. The walnuts can be stored in the freezer, or even just left outside in a covered bucket (protected from squirrels.)

Acorns are not quite as rich in dye as walnuts, in my experience. But since I have a lot of oak trees, I’m happy to use them. You will need to forage a lot of acorns to create a tan color. Again, I did not weigh them in my past projects. I remember using about two gallons of acorns to dye three yards of linen fabric. If you want to dye with acorns, I would suggest collecting a gallon or two. It’s a lot of work, so look for places where acorns have washed into piles from rainfall, or consider using a broom to sweep an acorn-covered driveway or sidewalk, to speed things up.

water flowing into a pot of acorns and walnuts

Acorns and walnuts require the same basic process to extract dye: simmer, strain, add fiber, simmer, rinse. To begin, put the nuts in a large pot of water and heat to a gentle simmer. Hold at that gentle simmer for at least one hour. In my experience, simmering for longer produces a darker color dye. After simmering, you can also turn off the heat and let the nuts steep for 24 hours, or more. Check the liquid in the dye pot -when it is dark brown, you have dye!

a simmering pot of acorns, walnuts, and water

When your dye pot looks nice and dark, strain out the liquid from the nuts, collecting the liquid into a large pot. I use these really nice fine mesh strainers that fit over a stock pot or five gallon bucket. I recommend putting a cotton bandanna or cloth napkin over the strainer as well. This strained liquid is your dyebath, and it’s ready to use.

Preparing the Fiber

When dyeing with acorns and walnuts, you must use natural fibers. Mordanting is optional, due to the high amount of tannins in the nuts. However, mordanting can sometimes create richer colors. I used alum as a mordant for the wool I dyed this time. For mordanting instructions, read here. For the cotton, I purchased Dye-lishus cotton, which doesn’t need to be mordanted due to a special treatment. This type of cotton also requires much less dye. Read more here.

Before adding the fiber to the dyebath, soak it thoroughly in water. In the video below, I forgot to do this. I swear, I forget almost every time. LOL. Soaking the fiber before dyeing will help you achieve a more even color. This is especially important when dyeing fabric.

Acorn and Walnut Dyeing Process

Add the soaked fibers to the dyebath. If dyeing wool or other animal fibers, be sure the temperature change from the soaking water to the dyebath is minimal. Either use a cool soak and move to a cool dyebath, or a hot soak and move to a hot dyebath. Do not move animal fibers from a cool soak to a hot dyebath. Sudden temperature changes can felt animal fibers instantly.

Once the fiber is in the dyebath, heat the water to a gentle simmer. Hold the temperature there for one hour. Check the color of the fiber. If you like it, it’s done! If you want it to be darker, try simmering longer, or letting the fibers cool overnight in the dye pot. When your fibers are dyed to your liking, or don’t seem to be getting any darker, remove the fiber and rinse until the water is clear. To avoid agitating your fiber, rinse by soaking it in a pot of water for about thirty minutes. Drain and repeat until the water is clear.

rinsing wool dyed with acorns and walnuts

If the dyebath (not the rinse water) is still richly colored, consider adding more fiber to use up the rest of the dye. Heat to a near simmer and hold for about an hour. Sometimes your dyebath will turn out to be exceptionally rich.

The Finished Product

I was very happy with the tan and chocolate shades I achieved on wool and cotton! I am excited to overdye the tan wool with either indigo or iron, I haven’t decided yet.

wet brown cotton sliver, hanging out to dry

All of these shades will make their way into my shop soon in various forms! Head over and take a look at what I’ve got for sale. Your purchases support me and my bunnies, my family, and Louisiana fiber farmers.

Thank you for all you do to support Spindle and Spoon Homestead. Whether you’re a fiber artist purchasing my spinning fibers, or a curious person watching my videos, or making purchases through my affiliate links, it all helps, and I couldn’t do this without y’all!