i see what you mean, and i agree that linguistically this is meh. it has the other bad effect that if you type "navajo knitting" into a search engine now, you find that many top references are to this method, and there is nothing about knitting by any actual navajo.

so i am kinda torn. i don't see what would be better.

because what it's doing is giving some acknowledgment to the fact that the idea came from navajo plying. which seems better than calling it "chain-ply knitting", for example, and just dropping the acknowledgment altogether.

i don't think calling it "chain-ply knitting based on a navajo method of creating a 3-ply yarn from a single bobbin" is really an option outside of a treatise written up for piecework magazine.

and now that i've looked a little further, it seems that other references to "navajo knitting" talk about duplicating navajo weaving patterns in knitted blankets, hats, slippers etc. like this "navajo knitted cardigan", which isn't knitted with the chain-ply method, nor by actual navajo.

i think i put the navajo in the subject in quotes, that's probably the best i can do.