The greatest nicety of all is in finding the exact quantity of
ingredients to put in, so as to prevent the dye stuff from injuring the
fibres of the hackles, &c.; for the light shades add the smallest
quantity, and augment it by degrees. Dye the hackles a very light shade
of blue first, in prepared indigo,[J] as I said before, take a spoonful
and put it into the dye pot and boil it softly for half an hour. Add a
very small quantity of alum and tartar to the dye, put in your hackles,
and boil for a short time; add to the dye a table-spoonful of the best
turmeric, savoy, or green wood, a little of each would do best, boil
slowly for an hour, take out the hackles, rinse them, and you will have
a green: you may have any shade of green by dyeing the blues darker or
lighter, and putting in more yellowing stuff and less blue when light
yellow greens are required, boil gently, and look at the hackles often
to see that they have taken the shade you want.
TO DYE LAVENDER OR SLATE DUN, &c. &c.
Boil ground logwood with bruised nut galls and a small quantity of
copperas, according to judgment: you may have a pigeon dun, lead colour,
light, or dark dun. The ingredients must be used in small quantities,
according to taste. You may have raven grey, or duns of various shades,
by boiling with the logwood a small quantity of alum and copperas.