February inspiration is by the phenomenal artist, Steven J Yazzie. Steven is a multimedia artist working in fine arts to video and production to photography and sculpture. Check out his bio here!

If you look at Steven's work you will find a vast collection of work. But it was definitely his Coyote collection that intrigued me the most. It was so hard to choose one and you will probably see inspiration from Yazzie again. We ended up going with this particular painting because of the yellow and orange hues. Also where is this coyote in a hat going? I like to imagine he has some business with Doc Holiday or maybe is about to swindle a bad man out of a lot of money.

This is what Steven has to say about his Coyote collection.

'Coyote is a complex character, enduring a rich history with the human world. For the Navajo/Diné, Coyote is a character of transgressive power, a revered cultural being whose actions are often seen as a reflection of our own human morality. Even in a contemporary sense, they are mischievous instigators, often believed to be an invasive species, challenging the livelihood of rural ranchers and farmlands and city dwellers. But, they have always been a symbiotic creature on the periphery of human civilizations.

It’s through this lens, one might consider the coyotes I paint in man-made worlds as a reflection of our own transgressive relationship to the natural world we share with Coyote. In my paintings they can be seen perched on chairs or perhaps a canoe, wandering throughout vacant interiors of contemporary environments. Void of humans in these spaces, each room contains artifacts of our lives, offering clues and questions. Objects/forms and associations of the western imaginations become the resting place for nature’s determined creature on four skinny legs, taking back the places we all to often see only as our own."

Please check out all of Steven Yazzie's work here!

We are so excited to have some super special yarn for this month's collective! O Wool is a sustainable yarn company who provides yarns that are grown, spun, and wound in the US. When we saw that Jocelyn was closing the doors of O Wool we bought up a few of her bases to share with our Indigenous Collective Subscribers.

This month's yarn captures much of Steven's coyote painting, from the rich colors to the texture. This yarn is 50% alpaca, 50% organic merino in 240 yards/100g.

Patterns we love for this month yarn are:

Harlow Sweater V Neck

Sophie Shawl

The Weekender

Antler Toque

Oska

We love pairing this yarn with Spincycled Dream State! If you need another Worsted weight we also pulled a couple of Recollect Worsted Colors we like. First to last slide; Ghost Ranch, Close Call, Rusted Rainbow, Evergreen, and I've Got Dreams to Remember.

With every month in the Indigenous Collective you can order more of the colorway in the listing below. Please know that additional yarn will be a preorder, the listing will be up until March 2nd and should ship right away! Extra skeins are limited this month.