Right off of the Plaza de San Francisco in downtown Cusco, we found a little yarn shop. There were cones full of alpaca and wool, and a variety of blends. One wall was dedicated to naturally dyed (or undyed) yarns, while the others used synthetic dyes. And in the display case below, there was a treasure trove of baby alpaca. Neatly arranged in bags of ten.

TEN balls of beautiful local alpaca for about $25. $2.50 a ball. Yeah, that was worth it. I bought three bags.

This was the only “commercial” yarn shop I found in the city – and I got this tip from one of the women working at the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco. The yarn that is produced by all of the spinners on the street is immediately put to good use by the family – whether for weaving, crochet, or knitting. Yarn is not seen as a profitable product – only the finished textile. Luckily I found this place, who seemed to cater to wholesalers and larger mill shops.

It was at the Pisac Market that I found the last bag of yarn, just slightly more expensive, but in a beautiful blue shade. Four bags seemed more than adequate.

The wheels in my head started turning – I needed a project for all of this yarn. I remembered the RYC Classic Alpaca collection that I picked up last fall, and my mind was racing… once I got home to Maryland, I confirmed that this yarn would be the perfect substitute for the RYC’s Baby Alpaca DK, with a little added yardage too! (and about five times cheaper than the Rowan equivalent…)

The idea of stripes immediately appealed to me, and I asked Kris how he felt about the Oxford sweater. (The colors were almost a perfect match.) I didn’t get an enthusiastic response, so I regrouped and thought that one of the natural shades would actually make a perfect Linden pullover, one of my favorite patterns in the book…

Nice, right?

…and the stripes are for me too! I do love the Oxford, so why not the charcoal and blue version for me?

I am feeling a very strong pull to this yarn – I think I just might be spontaneous and cast on with it soon… jumping over the other beautiful knits in my queue.

Which one should I cast on for?

I did not knit as much as I intended to in South America. My knitting was relegated to the long plane, boat, and train rides; incidentally, the plane and train are also where I had to catch some “shut-eye” in order to function properly. So… the knitting progress was slow.

I wound the Morehouse Merino laceweight yarn into four little balls before I left. Tucking them into my backpack, I figured I would come home with a finished Verona Shawl. Instead, I reached the halfway point – two hanks used and two more to go.

The simple stockinette was just what I desired. I did not want to carry around patterns and stitch markers that could go missing or be damaged. (Dropping them in the Amazon River was a very real possibility! and what kind of excuse is “a monkey ate my stitch holder”?) Yet, the rhythm and ease of the stockinette allowed me to focus on meaningful and educational conversations, building friendships, and on observing the wonderful world around me. The laceweight merino is so textural – softly spun, and sometimes overspun in areas. I love the “rawness” of the yarn.

In fact, it was this shawl that Kris saved in the hurried moments surrounding the earthquake. I had left the knit project on the table as I went down the hall to call my mother. A few moments later, the quake happened. As stated before, I was perfectly prepared to never see this project again, as well as our suitcases. During the panic, Kris had spotted my knitting on the table, quickly shoved the shawl into his jacket pocket, grabbed our two suitcases and two backpacks (it was a moment of superhuman strength, no doubt.) All of those bags were quite heavy and he managed to evacuate the airport, go down flights of stairs, and run out onto the tarmac with them in hand. All of this while ceiling tiles were falling around him, and hundreds of people were panicking.

I am so grateful that he grabbed the knitting – when we were reunited hours later, I cried when I saw that he had actually remembered it. No dropped stitches and not one tangle in the yarn. A perfectly in tact, half-finished shawl…

The Incas were a small people… probably hovering around 5 feet tall. Yet, their cities are built on top of mountains, with steps leading up to these cities that are about 2 feet tall each. They must have had very well-developed quadriceps.

I may have huffed and puffed a little coming up the mountain, but once we reached the top, it was all worth it!

Machu Picchu was recently named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and perhaps that is why the site was so crowded on a Sunday morning… I didn’t let the crowds interfere with my joy, though, what an opportunity to be in such an amazing and beautiful place!

See the llamas? They are the caretakers and the lawnmowers of Machu Picchu! After the (re)discovery of the site in 1911, llamas were used as pack animals to reach the mountain top. Once the climbers arrived, they would leave the llamas on site, and their descendants remain today.

If [when?] I go to Machu Picchu again, I would do a few things differently: 1) go earlier in the morning to avoid the heat, and the crowds, 2) wear more sunscreen. I got some burns, even after a liberal application of SPF 45. I think it was the proximity to the equator, and the altitude that made the burn more intense.

Our tour through the Sacred Valley – two days after Machu Picchu – was equally as meaningful. The Valley above Cusco, leading to Machu Picchu, is filled with little towns, and many more Incan archaeology. It was not as crowded, and the timing just seemed better. There were two highlights of that day: the town of Ollantaytambo, and the town of Chinchero.

The town of Ollantaytambo has been consistently inhabited for over five hundred years. The Incas built it, and the people there today live in the same structures and houses that they lived in. That tidbit made the site even more interesting.

I have already mentioned our stop in Chinchero, known for its textiles. The town also has some Incan ruins, and a beautiful church that has remained untouched since the Spanish came to the region.

This post concludes my Peru series – and I thank you so very much for reading and commenting! As your can undoubtedly see, Peru is a beautiful country with a rich history and diverse cultures. The Amazon and the Andes seemed like different worlds, yet they make up one country. I enjoyed each part of our trip immensely, and Kris and I are already thinking about a return trip. As you can see, this trip made a real impact on me.

Thank you for reading! I will share some souvenirs and knitting progress with you very soon

Before traveling to Peru, I did not completely understand how the fiber arts could play such a large role in a culture – not as a hobby – but more as a livelihood and a deep-rooted tradition. I knew about the Peruvian weaving techniques, the knits and the crochet, and a little about the spinning. Reading about these things in glossy travel magazines is one thing; yet seeing the fiber arts in action is definitely another thing all together.

This woman sat on the steps of the Cathedral in Cusco, quietly using her hand spindle and working the roving through her fingers. She was the first spinner I saw in the city, and we had only been there for a few hours. And there were many more that we saw! As I looked around, I saw many more women, spindles stowed away in their mantas, or in their hands – ready for a free moment to make more yarn for more textiles.

The fiber comes primarily from alpacas, sheep, and llamas: these animals are important to the families and to the societies as a whole, creating fiber, textiles, a revenue stream, and even as food later. It appeared that the baby alpacas were most prized for their fleece, which is soft, warm, and water resistant. Their fleece also commands a higher price, and their spun yarns are used to support the mills, the hand knitters, and the knitting machines that produce the ubiquitous alpaca sweaters, blankets, and woven textiles all over the Andes.

While knitting, crochet, and spinning are important to the Andes, the fiber art that truly defines the culture is weaving. The traditional dress includes elaborate woven garments: a poncho for men, and a manta (cape) for women. Even young children and babies have the beautiful woven clothes!

We had the opportunity to see many weavers working with the traditional back strap looms. The most interactive place to see these weavers (and to learn about the textiles in general) was at the Center for Traditional Textile of Cusco. The Center invites weavers, knitters, and crocheters to demonstrate their work. The Center also serves as a repository for the traditions of the surrounding Andean villages: their textiles are surveyed, and the Center purchases textiles to encourage talented weavers to continue weaving and learning while earning money to support their families.

Education programs are in place to teach the importance of the textile tradition passing from one generation to the next. The Center’s education department has started organizing oral histories originally collected by the village children. The Center also encourages the retainment of the Quechua language. Each textile sold in the Center’s store supports the family that made it – and each textile has a small card with the photograph, name, birth date, and location of the weaver or knitter who made that particular textile. It is a very important tool to connect the buyer with the creator. One particular shawl stood out for me – I was amazed by it’s colors and design. When one of the weavers saw me observing the shawl, he suggested that I try it on, and we could pose for a photograph. Once I put it on, I knew that it was coming home with me. More details on this shawl will come in a later post…

There is no shortage of textiles on the streets of Cusco and the surrounding villages, but the true quality garments are harder to come by (The Center, mentioned above, has excellent quality textiles, and a few other shops do as well). There are many markets that offer up woven and knit alpaca hats, sweater, blankets, rugs, and wall-hangings. The trend in these large markets is to sell the synthetic dyed garments with non-traditional motifs. When I saw the naturally dyed alpaca, wool, and llama shop, I made sure to stop and pick up a hat. I found a lovely woven purse made from orange and brown wools at one of the largest markets in the region: in Pisac, north of Cusco in the Sacred Valley.

[More photos from the Pisac Marketplace]

It was in the village of Chinchero, well known for the quality of their textiles, that I saw two knitters. One was a young teenage boy, using his backpack to hold his skeins of yarn. He was sitting in a group with his peers, and was knitting quickly with double-pointed needles. I was not close enough to see exactly what he was working on or to photograph him. When I saw him again, he was walking down the cobblestone street. I was happy to see this young man carrying on the tradition, knitting in a public place with his friends. The second knitter was an elderly man, standing solitary on the roadside, knitting on an elaborate colorwork chullo.

Click for detail view

I had heard that knitting needles are often recycled bicycle spokes, sharpened to a fine point, and this photograph seems to confirm it. His technique is quite different from European circular knitting – he is actually purling every row in the round, working from the outside of the circular loop, not the inside. This is supposed to be “easier” and with more tension for the integrated colorwork. It is also a tradition that the working yarn is looped around the neck for added control over the tension – it is here, although hard to see. (The end ball is in the small bag near his foot on the ground). A commenter on Flickr noted that his yarn appears to be three or more threads held together. While I did not notice this at the time, it helps explain how quickly he was able to produce the colorwork for the hat.

The techniques of Andean knitting and weaving have piqued my interest, and I plan to do more research on the topic. I was chatting with Eunny about this technique over the weekend, and she mentioned an Andean Knitting workshop she had seen advertised, possibly at a Stitches event. If any of you have seen these classes offered, or have taken them yourself, I would love to hear more about it. In the meantime, I am checking out some books on Andean knitting (review to come) and I even signed up for a beginning weaving workshop this winter…

From the northern rainforests, we flew to the southern mountains. When we first began planning our trip, we were going to stay in the Amazon, but I knew that I could not go to Peru and not see the Andes. Each part of the trip was so meaningful: the Amazon fed my nature-loving spirit, while the Andes fed the archaeology/hiking/textile-loving spirit.

Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire, and the Incas considered the city to be the “navel of the world”. Resting high (app. 12 000 ft) in the Andes, it was the center of the Inca “body” with roads eminating out to all reaches of the Empire (which went into Chile in the south, and into Ecuador in the north). The Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century was at the height of the Inca’s power and wealth.

…A city with such a rich history was bound to be a beautiful place…

Blue skies over Cusco

Many of the original Incan architecture was replaced by Spanish-style churches and convents, there are some remaining remnants of the Inca buildings in the city proper, most notably the Temple of the Sun, Qorikancha. The Dominicans built over the original Temple, but left one small section of ashlar stones that formed part of the original structure.

The main square of Cusco is called the Plaza des Armas. It is a large and lively city center, full of locals and tourists. There are many restaurants, shops, and museums nearby, as well as the historic Catholic churches. Every street has a high-end alpaca boutique, and Kris and I both came away with some lovely sweaters. And the food! I was slightly concerned about finding enough vegetarian foods on the road – but the Andes are the home of the potato (and a slew of other vegetables!) and there are about 800 varieties to try. Another favorite was the native grain quinoa. I was well fed in this glorious city.

The most common and notable drink in the Andes is the Mate de Coca, tea made from the same leaves as the drug, cocaine. The leaves have no effect on my mental state – but they are a local treatment for sorocha, or altitude sickness. I had a moderate case of sickness for the first twelve hours in the city – mainly characterized by nausea, headache, and shortness of breath. We took it slow, and by the next morning, I was back to normal (with the help of coca tea!)

Cusco is a city of juxtaposition: Inca culture is prevalent here, both in the material culture and the archaeological remains around the city, and Spanish influence is also strong, in the city planning and architecture. The people have found a unique balance. On the hilltops above Cusco, sit many Incan archaeological sites, the largest among them is the citadel complex: Saqsayhuaman.

[Also see the Incan aqueduct baths at Tambomachay]

Cusco was our case camp for our stay in the Andes. Each day, we had an agenda to see the sights, and each night we returned to our beautiful hotel. There are so many dimensions of Cusco and the surrounding areas that I want to share with you – next I will share a something close to all of our hearts: the Andean textile traditions!

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Thank you so very much to everyone who has taken the time to comment on my travel / photography blog posts and Flickr. I spent many hours going through the camera’s memory cards and working with the photos, and it is so rewarding to see that you enjoy looking at them, and learning more about their context. These narratives and photographs are a part of something much bigger, a “trial run” of sorts. Your feedback is so greatly appreciated. I can’t thank you enough.