Dyeing and carding

Last week, I decided to do something with the walnuts I've been collecting. They'd been soaking for a while, so I had some nice dark "dye liquor." When I went to drain off the liquid, I noticed some splash marks and a few nuts lying outside the container. I've been watching the squirrel feeder to see if one of these has darker-than-usual feet.

There was plenty left for me, however, so I strained out the solid bits, and brewed up the liquid on my trusty dyeing grill -- and then added some Rambouillet.

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it?
While it was simmering away, I thought I'd card some of the wool I'd dyed the week before. I like carding outside when the weather permits; all the yucky stuff blows away instead of embedding itself in my dining room carpet.

I started with this --

Then did this --

And ended up with this --It has a few noils, but I picked most of them out while I was pulling it out into roving.

Meanwhile, Scott decided to try tinting some of the ornament finials he'd turned by dipping them in the walnut dyebath

We could tell it was really fall, though -- I needed this to keep me warm enough to card.

The walnut-dyed fiber came out of the dyebath and onto screens, but a week later, it is still wet. So tonight, it is naturally staining our basement floor while it dries.

And then -- I card it, spin it, and knit it into something to wear with my Civil War era garb.