Posts Tagged ‘yarn’

JOIN MAYU’S ARTISANS: WORLDWIDE KNIT (WITH ALPACA) IN PUBLIC DAY!

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Through no fault of our own (ok, maybe a little), Mayu completely blew past celebrating Worldwide Knit in Public Day! This day has been recognized since 2005, taking place on the second Saturday of June every year. Communities of knitters all over the world get together in groups every year to showcase their talents in public. Well, the good news about us being a little slow on the uptake is that Mayu’s Peruvian artisans knit in public every day!! Due to the flexible nature of their jobs, they can gather in the streets and knit with friends, family and neighborhood children. Worldwide Knit in Public Day brings out some of the spirit of community that Peruvian knitters experience all the time, it is KNIT into the fabric of their lives (pun definitely intended)!

Connect with Mayu on Twitter, Facebook and our blog for exciting news about Peru, artisans, sustainability, eco-fashion, fair trade, and hand-knit alpaca.

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Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Grams Obilar Wool sm

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The Process Behind Mayu Hand-Knit Alpaca

Monday, October 5th, 2009

There is a very work intensive process behind the Mayu’s products and this week I want to share with you a bit about what is involved. IMG_1958sm

It all begins with the fiber from the alpaca. While our artisans do not shear the alpaca fiber, dye or weave it, they do these things with the wool from sheep. Since the process is very similar I am going to share photos of our artisans working with sheep wool.

Many of our artisans not only care for their families and knit, but they are farmers as well. They tend to their herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, usually with their knitting in hand. Not necessarily that of Mayu’s products since they have the work room, but clothing for their families, etc.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts about the process behind Mayu Hand-Knit Alpaca…

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Our Artisans Knitting

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Bercilia

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.

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