Washing,
Carding, Spinning, and Dyeing Wool for Weaving Navajo Rugs |
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Churro Ram at Mom's
(Leupp) |
Brown Churro Ewe with one month
old Lamb!! |
Churro ram, white churro, churro
lamb, and other sheep. |
Some of mom's other sheep and
Churro. |
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Late spring is shearing time and it sometimes depends on the weather. If it's still cold late spring then it's done the first part of June. We always look forward to shearing of our Churro sheep since we use the fleece in our weaving projects. |
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Shearing
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Shearing
Churro with sister, Loretta. |
Family
members help with the shearing every year. |
Christina,
niece, helps. |
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Shaking
churro fleece out before washing. |
Family
enjoy a day of washing churro fleece. |
Grandma
with grand kids washing churro fleece. |
Fleece
laid out to dry after washing. |
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Everyone
pitches in: helping one another in the shearing of sheep, getting wool washed,
carding, and spinning the wool. Growing up, I remember getting plants
around Leupp, Tolani Lake, and from mountains near Flagstaff, and walnuts
from Canyon Diabelo for dyeing wool. I remember it to be a family outing
where we would go down to the side of the mesas and get white wash for
our wool. We would dig wild carrot roots in our secrets places since plants
were scarce. These roots were dried for later use. I still use wild carrots
to get a pretty gold. The secret is to get the wild carrots at a certain
time of the year when it's ready. |
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Carding
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After
washing and drying the fleece, it is then carded with two carders. The
carding is time consuming. The carders make the fibers lie one direction
then it is ready to be spun. Note: I like
to spin churro without washing. It's much easier and saves time. |
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Spinning (to be updated soon) |
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Dyeing
Wool Using Natural Plants |
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Any
part of a plant can be used to dye wool. Leaves, bark, berries, roots,
etc. are first gathered. They are placed in containers (enamel, tin, aluminum,
cast iron, etc) with water added to dye wool. |
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Rabbit
Brush. |
Pot
of sunflowers in aluminum pot. |
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Simmering
leaves from tree in backyard. |
Walnuts
in enamel pot getting ready to simmer. |
Osage
orange chips. |
Skeins
of wool in cochineal (cactus bugs) dye bath. |
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Cast
iron container w/ 2nd dye bath of Osage orange chips. |
Simmering
goldenrod. |
Getting
wool ready with alum while simmering goldenrod. |
Wringing
out the wool after it's been dyed. |
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Putting
leaves in dye pot while wool from walnuts is cooling off. |
Pulling
& stretching skein of wool after using osage orange chips to dye wool. |
Taking
wool out of dye pot. |
Patiently waiting for wool to drain and cool off after dyeing. | ||||