Number 1

Fiber, needles,
spindle, wheel

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inside
this
issue
 H
ead north and west from Cusco, Peru, and you’ll see stunning landscapes
of rolling fields, snow-capped mountains, small farmsteads, and women in
A Trip to traditional dress herding flocks of sheep. As you drive down the narrow cobbled
streets of the town of Chinchero, you’ll note the remnants of Inca stonework and
Chinchero waterways, the bustling market, the 17th century church. Then you come to the
Weaving Center.

B ehind the heavy wooden

doors of this spacious walled
compound, you will meet several
women devoted to preserving and
extending a rich textile heritage and
providing income for the health and
The driving force behind the
Centro de Tejedores Away Riqcharichq
de Chinchero is Nilda Callañaupa
who has become known in her
own country and throughout the
world as a champion of traditional
dozen Quechua women who have education of their families. Alvarez, a native of Chinchero Andean textiles. The Center in
committed themselves to fostering
a high standard of traditional
excellence. They come together
to spin, weave, knit, and share
their challenges and dreams.
Children chase each other or a
stray lamb, or practice beginning
spinning and weaving skills at their
mothers’ side. Pairs of women
work together to prepare a warp Tending flocks
for a backstrap loom, tossing is an all-day,
balls of bright natural-dyed yarn everyday
back and forth. Women hitch responsibility
their looms to a central post, for older
spreading out spoke-like as they women and
make slow but steady progress on children of
their intricate pick-up patterns. Peruvian high-
Women pull out their knitting and land villages.
work intricate, traditional color-
rich patterns. This is no “living
history” museum; it is a vibrant,
forward-thinking community of V
 Left: Holding her circular knitting so the
right side is away from her, a Chinchero
knitter maintains tension by passing the
working yarns around her neck.

Chinchero is one of nine that it’s only a small part of a woman’s Above: The first
she has established throughout work. Depending on her age and step in plying is to
the region, each having its own life situation, she might spend wind two strands
characteristic weaving and knitting hours every day tending flocks in of yarn into a
styles and techniques that can date the fields. She might spend several ball or skein.
back hundreds of years. hours walking to and from a nearby Left: Natural
market. She certainly will spend dyes are the rule
Spinning in Chinchero time watching after children and in Chinchero.
Centuries after the invention preparing food. Common dye
of the spindle wheel or the flyer With a drop spindle, her stuffs are
wheel, all handspinning in the spinning is always at hand, always cochineal, indigo
Peruvian highlands continues to easy to pick up and carry along. and a wide variety
be done with simple wooden drop (Of course, there’s the issue of of local plants,
spindles. There’s a reason for this: economy, as well. You can find lichens, and
spinning is women’s work, and drop spindles in the markets for minerals.
 I
magine yourself as a bug

Energized on the surface of one

of Kathryn Alexander’s

Yarns knitted fabrics. You’d be

Yarn with a Mind of Its Own
Video: Kathryn Alexander on
how it all got started
Slide show: Highly energetic
knitting
Working with Energized Yarn
Video: Kathryn describes the
qualities of energized yarns
Video: Kathryn talks about
the shape-shifting nature of
energized yarns
Dyeing Energized Yarn
in a psychedelic badlands
of heaving, pulsating
furrows and hillocks. You
would weep bug tears of
ecstasy and dismay.
But wake up! You’re a
spinner, not a bug. You
can spin these yarns and
create these landscapes
yourself. Read along
and just imagine the
possibilites.

Peaks and Swirls Socks

Sock pattern to download
Kathyrn Talks About Her Yarn
Finished Size Tip of toe to back of
X

T hese socks were made

heel 8 ½”; diameter around leg 7 ½”;
with my un-dyed
Peaks and Swirls Socks with Energy
top of leg to bottom of heel 10 ½” (the
millspun singles PDF
top is scalloped, so yarns.
this is an average).
I dyed the socks after
Yarn Sportweight, Kathryn’s undyed
knitting using a painted, weight-
energized S and Z millspun singles
resist
yarns (availabletechnique
folding from Kathryn (described
Alexan-
at
der; one 1800 yard/lb cone willIfmake
the end of the pattern). you
want
4-5 pairsto spin yourorown
of socks) youryarn for the
own hand-
socks,
spun (240 youyards
could spin dyed
of Z-twist, 160roving
yards
of S-twist);
or dye your about 2 yards
singles usingeach of two
the
different colors
technique of smooth
described waste You’ll
earlier. yarn.
need
Needles to U.S.
spinsize
about
3 (3.25240 yards
mm) of 4
set of
Z-twist and 160 yards of S-twistif
or 5 bamboo dpn. Adjust needle size
necessary to obtain
sportweight singles. the correct gauge.
Your singles
yarn
Notions should ply needle.
Tapestry back on itself at
about
Gauge 6 a sts
33-degree
and 8 rows twist= 1”,angle.
rectan-
(That’s
gles are 1” wide x2⁄13 1of
about ⁄8” along.
45-degree
or right
Note: angle.
If you knit You candirectly
the yarn check
the
fromangle with
the cone, thea sock
twistwill gauge
seemor a
a bit
protractor,
loose and sloppy,or you andcanit willeyeball
collapseit if While the Peaks and
you’re prettyingood
after finishing at geometry.)
hot water. The sock Swirl Socks get their
does
The not shrink,
sock
migrate left and
but, as
begins with
right, they
the stitches
a
takeankle
up the
color from a form of R
provisional cast-on at the tie-dyeing after knit-
excess room in the fabric. The finish-
so that the entrelac peaks and ting, the sock above is a riotous
ing is needed to get the right look for
swirls can be worked up the leg.
the surface. I recommend knitting a combination of color striping,
Individual
swatch in the triangles
pattern and andfinishing
blocksit stranding, and intarsia.
are worked
to make back
sure the and forth,
knitting has theand de-
tiers are joined
sired surface. Thisin is the
not theround.
case After
with
completing
fresh yarn, which the yields
cuff, the the fistitches
nished Changing the size
are released
surface from and
immediately the undergoes
provisional The sock foot can be made
very littleand
cast-on change
theinheelthe fiand
nishing
foot are narrower by decreasing
(washing).
knit down towards the toe. to fewer stitches at the
heel gusset. For a smaller
Project Notes leg, delete a rectangle,
making the sock top seven
rectangles around instead
of eight. The sock foot can
P be made as long as desired.