Natural Dye from Acorns

 Acorn dyeing is a fun project for the fall. I was curious to see what type of brown would yield in the dye bath and how that would look on cotton and wool/alpaca. 

Sample of 2.5 lbs of acorns

Gather your acorns and then weigh them. Next wash them in a sieve to get all the dirt and bits of grass and leaves off. You don't want that in your dye. Plan on 1 lb of nuts to 1 lb of cotton, wool or alpaca, etc.

Crack the acorns a bit

Crack open the acorns to help the dye release while simmering. I didn't do all of them as it became a bit tiresome. But I laid the acorns on a towel and folded half of the towel over the acorns and gently tapped them with the hammer. 

Ready to go in the dye pot
Fill your dye pot with the acorns and add water. 

Added 3 gallons of water

Bring the dye to a simmer for 60-90 minutes. I have a gas stove and I turn the flame to medium until it warmed up and then to simmer for the rest of the time allotment. 

Simmer for 60-90 minutes

It is simmering away! 

Dye after 1st simmer


This is the dye after 90 minutes of simmering. I am going to let it cool and sit overnight as is. Then the following morning I will simmer it again for 60 minutes and let cool before straining. I actually left the dye bath for a couple of days. Thanksgiving came along and I got busy with that. The delay allowed the dye to seep more. It is okay to do that. It is a lovely deep brown now. I strained all the acorns out before putting my material in the pot.

The dye bath after 3 days of seeping

This is the dye bath after the second simmer of 60 minutes and straining. I put scoured and mordant cotton napkins in. I am bringing the dye bath to a simmer with the cotton napkins for 45 minutes.

The cotton napkins kept floating to the top of the dye bath so I placed my sieve on top to keep them submerged. Then placed the lid on the pot. Now to simmer for 45 minutes. Next I will let the cotton napkins cool in the dye bath. I can either remove when the dye bath reaches room temperature or I can let the cotton sit overnight and remove them tomorrow. I choose to remove them several hours later and this is what I got.

They are pretty.They look like they have been tea stained.  I think I am going to dip them in iron mordant. Now to dye the yarn in the dye bath. Again, I took the yarn out a few hours after the 30 minute simmering time. 

Yarn dyed in Acorn

I spaced out and forgot to leave the yarn in the dye pot overnight. The color is much lighter than I would have liked. I will pair it with a dark brown skein from my sheep and alpacas. 

I took the napkins because they were the same color as the yarn and dipped them in iron and got these beauties. 

Overall, I think it was a successful experiment. I am planning on onion skins next....!!!