Navajo Wool

This April my family took an amazing two week trip through the southwest.  We saw 7 National Parks and lot more in between.  One of the towns we stopped in was full of Native American kitsch for tourists.

There was a weaving room with amazing (and stunningly expensive) Navajo weavings for sale.  While I was looking, a woman came and started weaving on a big rug on the loom.  She would weave a few inches of the appropriate color, then if she was done, simply break off the yarn by untwisting it a bit and pulling.  It was wool singles in naturally dyed colors.  I asked her who made the yarn, and she said it was made locally, and I could find some in the grocery store.  I had found my souvenier!

I almost walked past it in the grocery store.  There was just a grocery card piled up with skeins of navajo wool in tons of beautiful and tempting colors.  The naturally dyed skeins were hanging from the rafters above my head and were of course more expensive.  I took six skeins to my husband and he helped me pick two colors to bring home.  I'm first going to weave a simple hat band for my outdoor hat. Then we'll see what inspiration comes!