Rainy Day Women

February flew by even more quickly than expected and Lexi left last Saturday, leaving me once again solita in Arequipa. Not surprisingly, things were pretty crazy during her whirlwind tour and less urgent activities like blogging kind of fell by the wayside. This post is well out of date now since the rainy season wrapped up a couple weeks ago, but it was a rather unusual summer weather-wise, so...

Never having come earlier than March in the past, all I knew of the Arequipeñan climate was beautiful and sunny weather every day with chilly desert nights. I had never seen a drop of precipitation and sincerely believed the reports of heavy rains during the summer months were invented for naive gringas. Not so. Just about the time Lexi came, the heaviest rains anyone had seen in years started to hit.

Some afternoons, the rain was so loud on the metal roof of the workshop that we had to give up talking until it subsided. One of these afternoons found a nearly defeated Andrea watching the downpour from the doorway of the workshop.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Ñañas armed themselves with plastic bag ponchos and headed down to check on their homes.

Many of them have makeshift metal roofs that leak large quantities of water, while more solid cement roofs don't drain properly and begin to crumble if they become too saturated. This led to serious problems a few years ago in Alto Cayma, but this year nearly everyone managed to make it through with minimal damage.

The newly paved road up to the church didn't fair so well, however, and those of us that stuck around until the end of the day had to hitch a ride down in the back of the church's food delivery van since the roads were washed out and we'd missed the last of the combis brave enough to venture out.

On the way down, we passed a driver debating whether to try to ford what used to be the road up to the church...

and a pedestrian waiting on a sandy island for safe passage down the hill.

The next day we found a couple of the neighborhood dogs sniffing around the impressive canyons left by runoff from the paved road up to the church and in the following weeks we passed teams of people filling in the gaps with sand. Things are mostly back to normal now as we move out of summer, but we'll see if strange weather starts up again in the coming months...

Friday of Firsts

Last Friday was a big day for us. It marked Lexi's first visit to the Michell wool store, along with her first encounter with a real, live alpaca, and a chance for us to see three of the samples nearly finished and ready for their second round of changes.

It was a beautiful, sunny morning, and we had a nice walk across the river to the Michell warehouse. As always, the sheer quantity of colors and types of wool was a little overwhelming at first, but we soon got settled in near the smaller section of baby alpaca wool and started hammering out our color palette for the collection. (Read: Lexi consulted notes and the master plan in her head and worked out different color combinations then matched them with her designs, and I tried to look busy running back and forth to different shelves looking for cones of the colors she needed and returning those she didn't. Definitely not my domain.)

After selecting our colors, it was time for a rendezvous with the llamas and alpacas kept outside on the Michell compound. We were quite enchanted with the alpacas, but they seemed a little less so with us (note the disdainful look on the one we're admiring below). Just give us time -- we'll win them over... [For all you camelid fans, the proud specimen pictured below is an alpaca of the suri variety.]

Back at the workshop, we were excited to see progress on three of the samples which were well on their way to being ready for a second round. Below, Lexi models the Marta, knitted by Maria Cruz. All of the sweaters and accessories bear the names -- or variations on the names -- of the sisters, mothers and daughters of the knitters.

Sebastiana is shown here clutching her labor of love, the Dani, which I promise you'll see in more detail in future posts...

... and I'm wearing the Adela, knitted expertly by Josefina (also mentioned in previous posts as Maria José, or just José). I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to have this sweater over your shoulders and am secretly hoping it will eventually end up in my closet...

Samples are being finished and modified right and left now, so keep your eyes open for upcoming posts!

Preparing for battle

Things are definitely moving forward. Monday was Lexi's first day in the workshop and she and Andrea hit it off right away, going over designs and swatches and figuring out the Spanish and English words for different stitches and techniques.

A sample will be made for each design (13 sweaters and about nine accessories), followed by a second, perfected sample (or contramuestra) that Lexi can take back to Iowa with her at the beginning of March to show to potential buyers. We spent that afternoon and evening deciding which knitter would take charge of each sample and trying to estimate when the first and second sets could be finished. Always a lot of guesswork, but feeling good at this point.

After spending a rainy Tuesday morning with designs and measuring tape spread out all over the living room (above) we headed up to the workshop with measurements and more details for each design. Once there, Lexi went over the measurements with Andrea while I worked with the ladies to determine their availability and the possibility of meeting our initial deadlines.

Meanwhile, Josefina and Rocío -- who had returned as promised -- were straightening wires for the looms and oiling the machines until they ran smoothly, a ritual which they apparently complete once a year; Frida was at her loom pumping out swatches so we could see different gauges; and Sebastiana was busy balling yarn in the corner. It was a dreary day outside, but in the workshop there was a certain sense of excitement in the air as we prepared for battle.

Rounding Up the Usual Suspects

First things first: Lexi is here! Her plane got in safely this afternoon, and she hit the hay early after getting hydrated, napping, making a trip to the grocery store, hydrating some more and eating dinner. Meanwhile, a little update on who's in the workshop...

At our weekly Wednesday meeting, more old faces were present, along with some new:

Andrea, the head knitter, is in the workshop every day, rain or shine...

... and is usually joined by Victoria (and Frida and Sebastiana who were in the cuy post).

Maria José has returned after finishing work at another site,

and Marleni is back after some time out sick.

Epifania and Graciela are hardly ever seen without their knitting needles...

...while Uldárica, Amelia and Toribia are always ready for a good time.

After being away for several months, dear Señora María, the weaver who includes her initials in every item she creates, finally showed up on Wednesday sporting new glasses.

Newer faces include Hilaria (here studying a new English phrase)...

Valvina, who has started teaching me Aymara (Kamisaraki? Waliki. -- How are you? I'm fine.)...

Antonia...

...and her daugher -- and future Ñaña -- Jessica, shown here modeling one of the chullos for Richard's order:

Others continued to trickle in after the camera had been put away, but, knowing that Lexi would be here in a couple days, I was getting a little nervous that I still hadn't seen many of the knitters who work on the hand-powered machines in the workshop, since that will be a large chunk of the work for the Chiri collection.

So Friday, after Richard's order was finished, we started going down the list of old names to start reassembling our team. It felt like one of those montage scenes from a caper movie where all of the old accomplices are tracked down at their current gigs then brought in for another big job.

Frida and I hiked up the hill to pay a visit to Rocío, who has been working for another business in town and runs a small corner store on the side, and she was excited to begin working on new designs and promised to come by the workshop on Monday. I ran into Meri at a sponsorship meeting on Saturday, and she had, as Andrea suspected, been traveling this past month but was also ready to get started again on Monday. Rocío called Betsi, who came up to the workshop later Friday afternoon and will be on call, and the two of them often see Juana, Verónica and Karmela, so they will try to send them our way as well.

Our team more or less assembled, now comes the next step: samples of all the new designs, which will be followed -- we hope! -- by enough orders to keep everyone busy this spring and summer.