Weaving...

I came to Cusco expecting to see textiles and I have not been disappointed... There are so many shops and markets filled with woven and knitted textiles and I know that we haven't even scratched the surface!

Yesterday, we went to the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco (Centre for Traditional Texiles of Cusco - sorry, the link is in Spanish but the images are worth a look) and I was amazed (yes... again!).  In the midst of the shop were two women demonstrating weaving on a backstrap loom. 

 

The yarn that they were working with was so fine and the patterns were quite intricate and yet they worked from memory counting threads and creating the pattern.  The peices that they were working on take them approximately 1 month to complete. 

I was mesmerised with how they could work as though it were second nature - they could even carry on a conversation without interrupting their intricate work.  I managed to capture a small video to show how they worked...