Blankets | Design

The Designs

All designs are my own. I think of Rio Grande Blankets as landscapes, and I often name them after locations here in New Mexico. I tend to keep them fairly simple in design so that they more accurately reflect the feelings I get from the local landscapes.

All the wool used in my blankets comes from my own flock of Navajo-Churro sheep. The process begins by feeding and caring for the sheep so that their wool grows long and lustrous, and in a way that keeps hay and other materials out of the fleece. A sheep is shorn (I use electric shears) when her fleece is about eight inches long, but before it gets damaged by the sun or begins to felt. Once the fleece is off the animal, it will be picked and clouded by hand and then washed and allowed to dry. Then it is carded (I use a drum carder) and spun into yarn on my spinning wheel. Yarn must then go into the dye pot for colors other than the white, black, browns, tans, and grays my sheep produce. It is after all of this has been accomplished that weaving can begin. My loom was made in the mid-1800’s in South-central Minnesota. The shuttles I use to throw the weft through the shed are ones I’ve made myself. When the weaving is done, it must be cut from the loom and finished. The warp ends are braided and tucked back into the web to make a strong end-selvage, and then the blanket is steamed flat.

These are the 12 steps of the process:

1. Shearing

2. Skirting/grading/labeling

3. Picking/clouding

4. Washing/drying

5. Carding

6. Spinning

7. Setting/dyeing

8. Weaving design

9. Warping the loom

10. Weaving

11. Tying off/finishing

12. Steam or wet finishing