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Those who spin their own wool should also know something about dying it. The industrious economical Canadian farmers’ wives generally possess some little knowledge of this kind, which enables them to have many varieties in the colours of their home spun garments … There are many vegetable dyes that are made use of here, such as the butternut, which dyes a rich, strong, coffee-brown, by steeping the inner bark in cold water for several days, and soaking the yarn in the strained liquor. The flowers of the golden-rod, a plant which grows abundantly in Canada, and blooms in the latter end of summer and fall, boiled down, gives a fine yellow; and yarn steeped first in this, and then in indigo, turns to a bright full green. The lie of wood-ashes, in which a bit of copperas has been dissolved, gives a nankeen-color or orange, if the strength of the lie be sufficient to deepen it; but it is hurtful from its corrosive qualities, if too strong … The yarn before dying must be well and thoroughly washed, to remove the oil which is made use of in the carding-mill; and well rinsed, to take out the soap used in washing it; as the soap would interfere with the colours used in the dying process. Horse-radish leaves boiled, give a good yellow; and the outer skins of onions, a beautiful fawn or pale brown. To cloud your yarn of a light and dark blue, for mitts, socks or stockings, braid three skeins of yarn together, before you put them into the indigovat; and when dry and wound off, the yarn will be prettily clouded with different shades, from dark to very pale blue.
From Catherine Parr Traill’s The Female Emmigrant’s Guide originally published in 1855 by a printer in Toronto. “Mrs. Traill’s Advice” appears regularly in The Fife and Drum, sampling from this attractive recent edition from McGill-Queen’s University Press. An indispensable Canadian reference, it is available from the Toronto History Museums online store. The illustration is from the 1836 edition of Mrs. Traill’s The Backwoods of Canada.
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