Before traveling into Peru we had a brief interlude in Bolivia. I was in fabric-colour-wool-alpaca-pattern-craft heaven.
I wanted to take the whole of La Paz with me. OK, maybe not the crazy streets, traffic and fumes.
Everywhere you looked there were indigenous ladies knitting or crocheting on the street, all without patterns, making the most complicated stuff. But my first experience of weaving was on the island of Taquile in the Peruvian side of Titicaca, the highest lake at altitude about 3900 meters above sea level. The indigenous people of Taquile are some of the finest knitters and weavers that I have ever come across. What surprised me was that the men knitted and the women weaved. But it’s not so surprising when you think that sailors originally knitted to pass the time back in the 18th century in Europe. Perhaps if there is something we should be more surprised with is that knitting nowadays is seen as gendered in the West. But even that has slowly started to change.
Both men and women learn from a very young age to knit and weave and the hats and belts they wear all symbolize their status in the community, so you know who is married, who is single and who’s an elder. The main square centre sells the crafts of the whole Island; each item has a tag to indicate which family made it so that the money can go directly to the maker once sold. The male elders of the community sell the crafts and they all sit around knitting with the wool in pockets and around their necks, needles clicking away.
I was left wondering if this was all a show for the tourists, but however much they survive by earning extra money from their craftwork, the quality and intricacies of the work cannot be argued over. I learned this the best way by trying to weave a bit myself. And I just can’t get over that fact that the pattern is in their heads, that they don’t look at anything but their own work as they are making it. And yes, that is an animal horn in my hand, used to keep the tension right as you go. You've got to use what you have, right?
Our crafty gatherings have been on a wee holiday for the summer as a lot of us are travelling from here to yonder over the next few months.
I did however attend a horse-hair weaving workshop that the Chile Makers ran, facilitated by Varignia. The workshop happened on the last day of the pop up shop - Micro Techniques in Carnaby Street.
This is my first attempt at horse-hair weaving and you need super concentration. This small disc is about the size of a two pence piece. A magnifying glass would be useful! The Chilean women who have been doing this for years put me to shame, they are so fast at weaving very elaborate creations.
This picture is the start of a wing for a butterfly, I'll have to continue making this as the time seemed to fly during the workshop, very stimulating. We will have to get Varignia to run another one for the Frizzle Circle group.
Today we were weaving on home-made looms (wooden frames you can pick up in pound shops) with my extensive wool and yarn collection, some of it free-cycled, some of it belonged to my gran and the rest I have picked up over the years. Eight of us descended on Bianca's place for a creative afternoon.
This was the proudly completed beautiful weaving creation made by Gaia. Amazed how into this we all got. So after I left you guys stayed there till midnight to finish your weaving? Mad...
