Rio Grande Wool Blanket — I

Description

Rio Grande banding is the old valley pattern: wide horizontal bars, symmetrical top to bottom, and nothing in the field between them. This is the smallest of the four, woven at a family mill in Belen, New Mexico, on a natural white wool with two indigo bars at each end and one narrow bar at the centre. The edges are bound in wool tape rather than cotton, so the whole blanket is a single fibre and moves at one rate when it is washed. 50 by 72 inches, 3 pounds 4 ounces. It suits a single bed or a truck seat. Wash cold with wool soap, no agitation, and dry flat. Indigo lightens a shade over years, which is the point of it.

• Loomed wool, natural white ground
• 50 by 72 inches, 3 lb 4 oz
• Wool tape binding on four sides; two indigo end bars and a narrow centre bar
• Woven at a family mill in Belen, New Mexico; bound and packed in Albuquerque