You may Knot the Fringe or Plat it and Knot it.
In case your heart yearns toward the old-fashioned process and you want to go into the work thoroughly, read the recipes given here and follow them carefully. They are taken from an old manuscript recipe-book, yellow with age and worn by use, which has descended to the writer from an ancestress famous for her good housekeeping and housewifely arts. The dye appears to have been prepared in large quantities, usually enough for sixteen pounds of wool, but you can easily regulate the proportion of the ingredients and make as much or as little as you want.
Wool Dyes
Navy Blue.—"Boil in a sufficient quantity of water twelve ounces of copperas, three ounces of alum, one and one-half ounces of verdigris, one and one-half ounces of cream-tartar. Run[[A]] your cloth in it for four hours, then air. Empty out that liquor and fill up with clear water; add four and one-half pounds of logwood, boil it for one hour and a half, then add six ounces of madder and boil for half an hour, then run your cloth for half an hour. Air it (the cloth), then add six ounces of blue vitriol and three ounces of pearl-ash. Mix it well and run your cloth in it for twenty minutes, then air and rinse it.
[A]. To “run” means to leave the cloth in the dye, moving and stirring it about occasionally that the dye may be evenly distributed.
Silver Gray.—"On one pound of woollen: Take two ounces of sumac and three ounces of logwood and boil for one hour in four gallons of water, then add one-half ounce of cream-tartar. Put in your woollen for one hour, then take out and air. Refresh your dye with water and add one-half ounce of copperas, bring it to a boil and run your woollen for half an hour, then air, rinse, and dry it.
Yellow.—"On woollen for one pound: Dissolve in four gallons of boiling water three ounces of alum and one ounce of cream-tartar, then run your cloth for one hour and a half at boiling heat. Take out, cool, and rinse, then boil one pound of fustic chips for five hours, run your cloth, while boiling, for one hour, then cool, rinse, and dry it.
Madder Red.—"On one pound of woollen: Boil five gallons of water in a kettle, add three ounces of powdered alum and one ounce of cream-tartar, then run your woollen in it for two hours, rinse and air it. Put five gallons of fresh water in a kettle, add eight ounces of madder, mix it well and bring it to the boil, then run your woollen for one hour, but it must boil only five minutes. Take it out, air and rinse it. Add to the dye one-half pint of clear lime-water, then run your woollen for ten minutes, then take it out and rinse it immediately.
Cotton Dyes
Brown.—"On cotton for five pounds: Bring eight gallons of water to the boil and add four ounces of pearl-ash, dip your yarn (or cloth) for half an hour and then wring out. Take twenty gallons of water and one bushel of maple or white-oak bark, boil it two hours, then take out the bark and strain the liquor and add one pound of copperas; stir it until it is dissolved and let your liquor cool to lukewarm. Dip your yarn for five minutes, wring and air it; dip again for fifteen minutes, wring and dip again until you have it dark enough.