behind a ball of yarn

Yesterday the Foundation received the monthly inventory of woven goods from the tejedoras. The members of the women's cooperative all meet in Nueva Imperial and bring the weavings that they completed the month before. It was exciting to see the huge pile of shawls, scarves, rugs, ponchos and more, in a myriad of colors. We filled the back of the truck with the products then back at the office, sewed labels onto each piece. Each label tells the name of the woman who wove the product, which community she is from and which materials were used to dye the yarn. Local trees and flowers, clay mud - even onion skin and blackberries - are used for the natural dyes. In addition to the finished products, we also received a load of yarn. It is delivered in bunches that still need to be rolled into balls. So my coworker and I spent part of the afternoon rolling yarn into balls for an upcoming fair where they will be sold. It is a tangly, two-person process!