Tuesday turned out to be exciting

I had decided not to go to the knitting group because it was very hot and my surgeon had reminded me to be careful. I was out very little Monday other than crossing a parking lot and chatting a few minutes, but it still knocked me down a bit.

Anyway I figured reading, making cordage, reporting on Textiles and Tea,  would be about it. Then the phone rang. The contractor was planning to start work Wednesday at 8 am. This meant finishing emptying the kitchen. 

So that was the afternoon committed, before Textiles and Tea, see further on.

Some of this entailed climbing up to retrieve porcelain and art pottery pieces from open shelving,just as well I got Hippolyta signed off.

Then Textiles and Tea, a wonderful presentation by Navajo (Dine) shepherd and weaver Nikyle Begay. They spoke on location from the big wool buy event on the Navajo reservation. 

Nikyle's weaving, a saddle blanket, the pompoms being a kind of code between mothers indicating their son or daughter was eligible!

Navajo Churro sheep, showing their range of colors

A saddle cinch, in the belief that horses also like to look good, so they should have beautiful accessories.

 

The horned toad, revered animal, whose patterning is seen in weavings

Wedge weaving, made by imprisoned Navajo, saving precious wool, as an economical weaving style

Here's the background of the wool buy, in  90°plus weather, long lines of trucks stretching back up the mountain, arriving to get their wool sorted and graded and sold.

The buying event had been postponed because of wildfires, Nikyle not having planned to do the interview in the middle of the extremely busy massive wool buy. But they bravely said let's go ahead and you'll see the lines and lines of trucks bringing in Navajo Churro wool.

There's a long terrible history of the US government oppressing the indigenous people, killing their sheep, and burning their homes, to eliminate the Churro in favor of other breeds. But the Dine persisted, hid flocks of Churro in the mountains and ended up reviving the breed. As you see, from the quantities of Churro wool arriving.

Nikyle breeds all the natural colors of the sheep rather than dye them, then shears, processes, spins and weaves their wool. 

They founded the Rainbow Fiber Coop, named for the rainbow of gods in their belief system as much as the orientation meaning of the symbol. But tariffs have bitten into their ability to send wool to Canada for scouring, and they have suspended coop activities for now.  

Nikyle has an IG account where people can buy wool and yarn in small quantities, not the larger amounts processed by mills and scourers.

This was a significant afternoon in the presence of a person with generations of knowledge of the sheep and Dine  history. 

Their umbilical cord was buried, by their shepherd grandmother, in the sheep compound, as a wish that they'd make a life as a shepherd. It's a Dine observance, as a hope of directing the developing baby toward one kind of life or another. It seems to have been effective on Nikyle.

Definitely check on Nikyle Begay for an education in the wool life as well as great Navajo weaving.

Then, before the program was finished, Gary called to say my car was to be ready Wednesday, as well . Everything happening at once. So he was going to get Handsome Son or another neighbor to help retrieve it, depending on who's available.

The cleaners also wanted to come in the next couple of days, but once again I postponed them. They wouldn't be able to get in the kitchen and the living room is packed with kitchen stuff, hard to navigate let alone clean.

Never a dull moment. Again. I did in fact read a bit and make some cordage, though that wasn't as central as I'd expected.

Happy day everyone. Help me breathe!