One of my goals on my site is promote Navajo weaving and Navajo made products.  I want to make Navajo handspun yarns, Navajo made weaving tools and hand-dyed yarn available to fiber artists who have an interest in Navajo weaving.

A few years ago I “hand-dyed” dozens of skeins of Navajo Churro wool by fermenting them in a prickly pear dye bath.  I purchased my yarn from Connie Taylor when she was still living in Ojo Caliente, NM. Connie now lives in southern Colorado and she can be reached through her website, http://www.navajo-churrosheep.com/member-webpages/CerroMojino.html.  I’ve known Connie for years and I really like she raises Navajo Churro sheep while still being involved in Dine’ be’ Iina’ (Navajo Lifeway) organization, http://www.navajolifeway.org/.

Here’s how I fermented the skeins of yarn.  I washed my skeins in very warm water to wash out the oils–lanolin and spinning oils–that were still in the yarn.  I then rinsed and soaked the yarn while I sliced up the prickly pear fruits.  I filled my containers with water and added the sliced prickly pears.  I mixed the prickly pear bath differently each time with the wool depending on what I wanted to achieve.  I wanted to make some yarns have more varigated, streaks of color while other were very uniform.  In the end, it was up to Mother Nature’s gifts of prickly pear, water and the fermentation process that produced the following yarns I have available for sale. 

I did rinse and wash the wool after the fermentation so there’s no funky smell in the yarn.  I aired out the yarn and rinsed the yarn.  Word of caution about these colors.  Although the prickly pear fermented dye bath is self-mordanting, the colorfastness is not absolute as with all vegetally dyed yarn.  As a hand-dyer, I am very conscious that I wash my yarn so the excess dye does not “bleed” into the neighboring colors when used in a weaving or knitting project.   In short, please keep in mind the pink color may fade with exposure to different types of light and washing.

 Please contact me if you have any questions. (By the way I usually do not offer my hand-dyed yarn for sale to other fiber artists).  I did the dirty, smelly work for you so you can now enjoy this beautiful naturally dyed pink Navajo Churro wool yarn!

	Prickly Pear yarn #1      Weight: 4oz Navajo Churro wool yarn, single ply This yarn has some light to dark pink streaks in it.  Overall subtle streaky appearance. Quantity: 1 Price: $32 plus $8 shipping in the US
	Prickly Pear yarn #2   Weight: 4oz Navajo Churro wool yarn, single ply This yarn has some light to dark pink streaks in it. Overall subtle streaky appearance.  Quantity: 1 Price: $32 plus $8 shipping in the US
	Prickly Pear yarn #3  Weight: 4oz Navajo Churro wool yarn, single ply This yarn is uniform in color withs some peach to orange highlights. Soft pink color. Quantity: 1 Price: $32 plus $8 shipping in the US
	Prickly Pear yarn #4   Weight: 4oz Navajo Churro wool yarn, single ply This yarn is the darkest pink of the yarns featured here. The actual color is darker than yarn #3 above.  There are some dark pink streaks in this yarn.  Quantity: 1 Price: $32 plus $8 shipping in the US