Weighted Color Proportions

When I give a color recipe THE PROPORTIONS ALWAYS REFER TO LIQUID DYE. And my liquid dyes contain different concentrations of powdered dye depending on the color group. By changing the concentrations by color group, I'm less likely to need to use large measures for one color and tiny measures for another when I combine liquid dyes.

Reds are strong; yellows are weak; and it takes a lot of black to make black. I use less dye for the reds and more for the yellows & blacks. The blues are my standard. I add 1 teaspoon red or 2 teaspoons blue or 3 teaspoons yellow (or black) powdered dye to 320 ml (about a cup and a half) of urea water (1 cup urea to 1 quart of water). I might make the concentration stronger on certain occasions.

TO TRANSLATE these weighted proportions to actual proportions of powdered dye...

Leave the red amounts alone.
Multiply each blue amount by 2
Multiply each yellow and black amount by 3.

(You may be able to simplify at this point, for instance 3:6:9 is the same as 1:2:3.)

I use the U.S. system for dry measures and large amounts of liquid, and metric for small amounts of liquid. (Mixed up, I know, but it works for me.) I always mix my liquid dyes to a standard concentration (below), then measure out the liquid according to the proportions in the recipe.

	REDS	BLUES	YELLOWS & BLACKS
1/32 teaspoon	10 ml	5 ml	~ 3 ml
1/16 teaspoon	20 ml	10 ml	~ 7 ml
1/8 teaspoon	40 ml	20 ml	13 ml
1/4 teaspoon	80 ml	40 ml	27 ml
1/2 teaspoon	160 ml	80 ml	53 ml
1 teaspoon	320 ml	160 ml	107 ml
2 teaspoon	640 ml	320 ml	213 ml
1 Tablespoon	960 ml	480 ml	320 ml
4 teaspoons	1280 ml	640 ml	426 ml
5 teaspoons	1600 ml	800 ml	535 ml
2 Tablespoons	1920 ml	960 ml	642 ml

For the tiny amounts I use measuring spoons from a gourmet shop labeled pinch, dash, and smidge, which are 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32 teaspoons. Even so, things aren't very accurate in these amounts, which is usually OK for me. If accuracy matters, I paste up more than I need, and measure the liquid accurately.

Before getting started, I work out how much total dye I need for the amount of fabric and depth of shade I'm going for. Let's say I'm dyeing a quarter yard a dark and even purple, requiring 500 ml of liquid dye. For a color recipe of 3 parts Fuchsia to 7 parts Turquoise, that works out to 150 ml of Fuchsia and 350 ml Turquoise. I look on the chart to find the next larger amount of each color. For Fuchsia I'll mix 1/2 teaspoon powder into 160 ml of urea water. For Turquoise, I would mix up 1 and 1/4 teaspoon powder into 360 ml of urea water. I'll measure out the exact amounts and dye my fabric in it.