Textiles  of the North American Southwest
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Blanket, Navajo. Collected by Nelson A. Miles, possibly during military service in Arizona in 1886-1888. National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, cat. no. 22.1688.

Dimensions: 71 in. (warp) x 52 in. (weft).

Technique: Plain tapestry weave.

Thread count: Warp = 8/in. Weft = 40/in. (handspun wool); 52/in. (raveled yarn); 80/in. (commercial yarn).

Fibers: Warp = 1-ply handspun wool yarn, natural white, Z-spin. Weft = 1-ply handspun wool yarn, natural black, combed pink (natural and cochineal), and indigo blue, Z-spin; raveled wool yarn, orange-red (unknown dye), Z-spin, and raveled wool yarn, dull crimson (unknown dye), S-spin; and 3-ply commercial wool yarn, orange-red (unknown dye), S-spin, Z-twist. Selvage: warp = 2 cords of 3-ply handspun wool, indigo-dyed blue, Z-spin, S-twist; weft = 2 cords of 2-ply handspun wool, indigo-dyed blue, Z-spin, S-twist. Corners: augmented tassels.

Design: Striped ground of brown and blue. At each end and separating the brown and blue panels are diamond stripes of parallelograms woven in blue and orange-red with combed pink borders alternating with simple stripes in combed pink.

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