nitting in the Andes
Donna Druchunas explores the knitwear made by the men and women of Peru, with its vibrant, symbolic colourwork
WHAT’S YOUR favourite knitting tradition from around the world? If you’re like me, you probably have a hard time choosing. Everywhere that people have adopted knitting, they have put their own spin on it, and invented marvellous techniques to incorporate their own unique design sensibilities in pattern, texture, and colour. When you celebrate these knitting traditions, you also celebrate the people who invented them, and those who carry on their traditions and continue to make these objects today. A few of my favourite traditions are cable knits from the Aran Islands in Ireland, toe-up socks from Turkey, lace shawls from Estonia, complex pattern stitches from Japan, and elaborate colourwork hats and purses from Peru.
Motifs with meaning
In the Andes mountains of South America, and particularly in Peru, men and women took the imported craft of knitting and adapted it to their own style, using motifs and colours from their traditional weaving and folk art. The colour patterns used on Andean caps, bags, and accessories feature a wide range of complexity. There are simple stripes and checks, complicated geometric designs (such as zigzags and Inca crosses), and pictorial representations of people and animals. Many nd of the symbols carry sacred meanings, and have been in use for centuries across the mountains and plains of the Andes.
Animal motifs, for example, are popular on Andean knitting. Guard dogs are used as protective amulets; birds bring good news; and livestock animals are reminders of the still-rural lifestyle in the region. Insects, reptiles, and pests such as scorpions are also common. Cross motifs are used to remember a recently deceased friend or loved one, as well as to provide protection over the fields during the growing season. Zigzags may symbolize rivers or roads, which provide transportation through the mountainous terrain. They may also stand for serpents, which bring wisdom and knowledge of the ancient past to the wearer, or earthworms, which bring fertility to the fields. Another motif, the coca leaf, has been a central part of Andean culture for millennia. Today, workers chew the leaves of the coca plant for stamina during a long day’s work. The leaves are also said to provide relief for high-altitude sickness.
Women spin and dye yarn, and they also knit, as do many men. Traditionally knitters worked exclusively with handspun yarn made from local alpaca and llama fibre. Today, they often make fanciful accessories using commercial acrylic yarn that is dyed in bright neon colours and respun to make the twist tighter. Using bicycle spokes or fine wires as knitting needles, knitters work at a very fine gauge. Tensioning the yarn around their neck and flicking to make stitches with their left thumb allows them to knit with multiple colours in the same row without tangling the yarn.
Men wear knitted caps with earflaps, known as chullos, which they make for themselves. Boys learn to knit at a young age, and except for the first chullo each infant wears as a baby, a boy makes all of his caps himself. Chullos are knitted very tightly - sometimes as much as 20 stitches per inch (80 stitches/10cm) - with multiple
colours. The resulting fabric is sturdy and windproof. Chullos are knitted in the round except for the earflaps, which are added after the main part of the cap is completed. Today, many younger men and boys wear baseball caps over their chullos.
Colourful accessories
Peruvian women knit purses in many different sizes and shapes. Most are quite small compared with North American and European handbags and shoulder bags. They often have many tiny pockets to store change, small personal items, and amulets. These small change purses, called
monederos de cambio, are knitted in the round, with stitches for the pocket openings knitted in scrap yarn that is later removed so stitches can be picked up to add the small pockets. Simple purses may be rectangular or oblong, with only one or two small pockets. Complex purses may be in the shapes of animals or people or in diamond shapes, and they often have many pockets. They may be decorated with tassels and coins for good luck.
Men and women knit other accessories as well, including mittens, gloves, and legwarmers. The Andean people have not traditionally knitted sweaters. However, their techniques and colour patterns can easily be adapted for use in making sweaters. By using the bright colours and decorative edgings that are traditional in Andean designs, you can create garments that evoke the spirit and style of the ancient Incas. These products are sometimes sold ndin tourist markets as well as in import shops around the world.
I know it may be difficult to connect a piece of knitted fabric – one that you are holding in your hands, that you understand because you made it stitch by stitch – to a group of people who may seem strange and foreign to you; who live far away or who live in a very different way than you do. But I think we, as knitters and as human beings, need to make the effort to see the connections, the commonalities. Making things by hand, after all, is an intimate human endeavour and we should use it not only to knit strings into socks, but also to knit person to person, strangers into friends.
Further information
– Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez: Andean
Knitting (DVD, Interweave Press, 2013) – Donna Druchunas: Ethnic Knitting: Discovery: The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and The Andes (Nomad Press, 2007) – Cynthia Gravelle LeCount: Andean Folk Knitting: Traditions and Techniques from Peru and Bolivia (Fiber Arts Publications, 1990) – Marcia Lewandowski: Andean Folk Knits: Great Designs from Peru, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador & Bolivia (Lark Books, 2005)