NearSea Naturals: Heirloom Churro Yarn: 3-Ply Taos Hues

Bring history to life when creating with these sublime hand-dyed yarns. Created using heirloom churro wool and traditional plants (many native to New Mexico), these are colors that would have been seen either before or during colonial times. Archaeobotanist (and NM State Archaeologist) Glenna Dean knows her New Mexico textile history, is an expert at natural dyes, and has a strong interest in sustainability -- she's a great match for us here at NearSea Naturals, and your projects will glow with the true colors of time when you work with these magnificent yarns.

Frequently chosen for knitting with a Size 4 US needle, for wet felting (like these flowers), and for other detail work, this three-ply yarn is in 70-yard skeins. It's not generally what you'll choose for outerwear (except for very special projects for people you dearly love and want to treat extra well), but it's so wonderful for accent work, felting, tapestry weaving, making stuffed toys and other small projects, and the like. Glenna theorizes that the thicker, coarser churro wool hairs catch and reflect light differently, making colors brighter and more interesting. When she dyes a softer, more common yarn (a merino, rambouillet, or the like) side by side with a churro yarn, the two come out very different.

These yarns can be washed with a mild shampoo in lukewarm water. Lay flat to dry. They felt well; just make sure you WANT them to felt before going after your creations with hot water! Note that colors vary within the batches -- that's the beauty of such small-batch, hand-crafted yarns. We'll try to match colors as much as possible within each order, but do expect some variance.

MULLEIN GREEN: This glorious dappled green has so much depth,... with blue showing through in some places and yellow in others. It's created from mullein, also known as miner's candle, a native perennial plant. Glenna gathers the leaves from plants growing near the diversion dam of their irrigation ditch, or acequia, that dates back to the eighteenth century. Mullein makes a yellow dye, which when topped with indigo makes this deep, rich green. It?s definitely one of my favorite colors.

BINDWEED NEUTRAL: This yarn is proof, Glenna thinks, that something good... can come out of even the worst situations. In this case that dreadful situation would be a nasty bindweed infestation that's finally, mostly, mostly under control. Often known as Wild Morning Glory, this pernicious perennial has the dreadful habit of growing back two whenever you break one. Luckily it also makes this slightly greenish neutral yarn when dried plants and iron-rich well water are used. The yarn makes a wonderful foil that seems to spark any plant-based color worked next to it.

CHAMISA YELLOW: New Mexico autumn is made up of a symphony... of four main colors -- a deep blue sky that goes on forever, the greens of juniper bushes and silvery sagebrush, and the happy yellow of the omnipresent rabbitbrush or chamisa flower. Glenna gathers the flowers from this perennial member of the rose family from plants lining her driveway in late summer every year, and uses them to color this yarn the hue of this flower. If you've been to New Mexico in the autumn, you know this color!

BRAZILWOOD RED: This color's cheating a bit; you'll normally ...find brazilwood makes a purple but the addition of ph-altering vinegar to the dye water manipulates the color toward the red spectrum to create this glorious deep rose with blue tones. A dyewood from the Far East known as brasil and found growing in South America, this tropical tree gave its name to the modern country of Brazil. The particular wood used to color these yarns is sustainably harvested in Central and South America.

WALNUT BROWN: This very warm brown, with undertones of red, comes... from the outer shuck of small native walnuts gathered in Southwest New Mexico each fall. Like most nuts, walnut makes a very permanent dye -- much to Glenna's husband's dismay, it'll stain concrete (don't ask her what he said about the drip marks from the last batch!). Indeed, during the Civil War, Confederate uniforms were frequently dyed with butternut (and the soldiers thus called Butternuts) as a cheap way to get a color that wouldn't wash out. Try it yourself. It's possible that one or two small bits of walnut might fall out as you use this yarn; we haven't had it happen, but Glenna said it might on rare occasion so we're warning you because we're all about full disclosure here.

NATURAL WHITE: This is the natural, undyed color of white churro wool.

MADDER RED: A deep orangey red, this yarn is a great accent color. ... Rose Madder has been used as a fabric dye since the earliest historical times, and different species of the plant are native to the Old World, Asia, America, and Africa.

Churro sheep produce the wool used in these splendid yarns.

Churros date from the 16th Century when the King of Spain allowed his New Mexico colonists...

to bring this "ordinary" sheep to the New World while he kept his prize Merino fine-wool sheep for his royal court. A primitive sheep with a double coat, the hardy Churro produces long, coarse wool over a finer, glossy underwool. The outer coat is well suited for spinning warp yarns and the underwool is ideal for rug, blanket, and outerwear wefts. Both sexes can sport horns, sometimes up to two pair!

Their wool can be white or patched with color and is largely grease-free. This is probably the major factor in the development of Rio Grande serapes and what are now known as Navajo rugs or blankets, as little water was needed to clean and dye the wool for weaving. To stem soil erosion in the 19th Century, agents of the United State government forcibly thinned the immense herds of Churro sheep maintained by the Navajo. At the same time, government breeding programs crossed Churro sheep with fine-wool breeds in an attempt to upgrade the coarse wool. The Spanish Colonial Churro faced extinction except where carefully guarded by traditional Navajo families living in the remote desert. The interests of university sheep breeders, handspinners, and textile enthusiasts fortuitously came together in the late 20th Century in time for the Churro to begin the long walk back from the brink. They are proof that time is a continuum and that history lives in the future.

At the mill, the coarse outer coat and finer inner coat are carded and spun together, producing a yarn that reflects its primitive heritage and enlivens the plant colors with which it is dyed. And these colors are amazing. Talking to Glenna is like getting a crash course in the science and history behind natural dyes (in a very good way -- she's incredibly knowledgeable and will keep your interest and attention and it's just so much fun ... we kept her sitting in our office long after normal people would have let her go home!).

Sheep Is Life says:

"Navajo philosophy, spirituality, and sheep are intertwined like wool in the strongest weaving. Sheep symbolize the Good Life, living in harmony and balance on the land. Before the Navajo acquired sheep on this continent, they held the idea of Sheep in their genetic memory from thousands of years ago."

The Navajo-Churro sheep, instrumental in historical Navajo weavings, almost went extinct during the twentieth century and only a concerted effort brought the species back to where it is now (it's listed as "threatened" but there's a lot of hope!). Connie Taylor, who collected all the wool for this yarn from various shepherds, wrote a bit about the history of churro sheep. Talking about herself in the third person, she tells us more about the specific sheep this yarn comes from:

Connie Taylor, who is a breeder and registrar for the Navajo-Churro, purchases wool from growers in the mountains and high desert of the Four-Corners area of NM, AZ, UT and CO. None of the wool is certified organic but it is all from well-managed flocks raised in traditional pastoral settings. It is natural. Most of the flocks have herders tending them or have guard dogs or guard llamas with the sheep to prevent predation by coyotes or dogs.
Probably 60% are shorn with electric clippers once each year. The rest are shorn by hand shears by Navajo families. Professional shearers are used and animals must be handled humanely. Shearing is a celebration, usually done before the ewes lamb and before the heat of summer sets in. The sheep do not enjoy being handled but they submit and their fleece is shorn away in less than 5 minutes. The sheep walks away pounds lighter.

(Yes, she did say guard llamas -- the churro sheep can be afraid of guard dogs, but have no such fear of llamas. Am I the only person who loves that concept?) No mulesing is performed on these sheep, or on any other sheep that we know of in the United States.

Because of the short skein length for these hand-dyed natural specialty yarns, the swatches are shorter than usual; they average 5" each. Swatches come with pieces of each of the yarns, so you don't have to specify which color you want.

Beautiful, Natural Yarns & Needles : Eco-friendly yarns made from animal fibers