Miguel Anrango, traditional weaver

Most of the weaving that is done in Otavalo these days (and probably anywhere that such handicrafts and made and sold) is done on big machines that crank out enough product to meet demand at a low price. So it is really neat to see how things used to be done, and to realize how laborious it actually was.  Miguel Anrango is an old school weaver, one of the few still around in Otavalo. He does everything by hand, literally. Not just turning on the machine.

Here is has a box of raw sheep wool. Sometimes he uses wool from a llama or alpaca, but that is much more expensive he says. He takes the wool and places on this metal contraption that kind of looks like the part of a cheese grater that you use to get lemon zest (guys, you may have to look that one up on wikipedia).















Then he takes old, dried up thistles like are pictured below, attached to a handle. He told us that this is the traditional instrument, but that he mostly now uses a metal one that doesn't wear down as fast. He then rubs the thistle contraption over and over the wool on the cheese grater to comb it out and make the fibers line up, kind of like after you comb through your daughters tangled hair to make it smooth.















After making it smooth, he rolls the fiber up and connects it to the end of another fiber that has been twisted over and over again, using this machine. Once the fiber is attached, he stretches it out and spins this wheel, twisting the new fiber around and around. This makes yarn. Seriously cool.















After the yarn is dyed (using things like walnut extract and other colorful plants) and spun, he starts making his blankets and ponchos. It is fantastically painstaking work, and to get one row done, it probably took him a couple of minutes, at least, while we sat and watched. Add up the hundreds and hundreds of rows of yarn, and that is a long project. He told us that a blanket to cover a bed takes about a month to weave. No wonder he was selling them for $400. And I bet they are virtually bomb proof.