The Colors In Navajo Weaving

       The colors of natural wool are white, brown, and black and a gray that is a combination of white wool and black wool. The colors of native dyes included black, blue, and green and several shades of yellow and red. Native dyes were made by early Navajo weavers in many different ways.
       Black dye was made from the twigs and leaves of aromatic sumac mixed with the gum of pinyon and a native yellow ocher ground to a powder and roasted. It was used for darkening black wool, which in its natural state is not a true black. In the early days a blue was made from a native blue clay, but this blue was displaced later by indigo blue brought from Mexico. Green dye was a mixture of blue and yellow dyes.
       Yellow dyes, in shades from greenish yellow through lemon to orange, were made from the yellow flowers of the rabbit weed. An orange-red, sometimes called old gold, came from crushed sorrel roots to which alum may have been added. The recipe for making red dye is not always the same, but the roots or bark of the mountain mahogany seem to have been in common use. The native reds were not true reds. They were pale, dull shades that were brownish or orange in hue.
       It was not until the Navajo devised a new kind of yarn that they could have a clear, brilliant red in their blankets. To make the new yarn, they unraveled bright-colored woolen cloth of Spanish and English origin and retwisted the ravelings for handweaving. This yarn was called bayeta yarn and the blankets made from it were called bayeta blankets. "Bayeta" is the Spanish word for the English baize.
       Red was the predominating color of blankets made of bayeta yarn. The color varied from scarlet to a reddish brown that when mellowed by time often became a strong rose. Navajo weavers of bayeta blankets used other colors of bayeta yarn, too - vivid greens and yellows and blues, but many people refer of the brilliant red as the bayeta color.
       A great change in the colors used in Navajo weaving came when aniline dyes began to make their appearance. In comparison with native colors, the colors produced by aniline dyes seem harsh and lifeless. But the native weavers regarded the new dyes with delight and used them with more enthusiasm. This is the reason that brilliant color combinations were produced in some of the weaving of that time. In recent years, however, Navajo weavers have given up their use of certain gaudy commercial dyes and yarns and are commencing to use more traditional pleasing colors again. Caldwell.

Jeffrey Jamon talks about natural wool dyeing.