Yesterday’s photo from Wordless Wednesday is Grams, my host grandmother, working with sheep wool. You can see it gathered at her feet and in her hands as she works the fiber. This is similar to what the alpaca farmers would do with the alpaca fiber once the animal was sheared. Just think of the time involved in each step in getting the fiber fom the alpaca (or sheep in this case) to the finished hand-knit alpaca product. Simply amazing, isn’t it?
This is Bercilia and her daughter. Bercilia is one of our regular artisans, as we have nine solid artisans. Notice how relaxed Bercilia and her daughter look as they sit while Bercilia knits on her current project. Our artisans knit all the time and knit everywhere. They take their knitting everywhere they go and you can find them meeting on street corners to knit together. They will even knit while they walk! The ladies love knitting and that is what you will find them doing when their hands are not busy doing something else. They are such skilled artisans that there is no need for them to be focused while they knit. Their hands just move, creating stitches like it is second nature, which it is since they learn to knit at very young ages. Many of the women have daughters aged 15-17 who will assist them in knitting Mayu’s Hand-Knit Alpaca products. Isn’t that fascinating?
Just look at the folds of knitted alpaca yarn in her lap that she has already finished…doesn’t it make you wonder what she was knitting and what the yarn feels like? Do you wonder how long it takes her to knit one of our alpaca throws? Well, we hope to tell you little details like this in upcoming posts.
