Spindles, Peru

Spindles, Peru, 2017.  

As an avid spinner, I was eager to bring home some spindles from our hiking trip to Peru in 2017.  Our guide helped me find them during a visit to a weaving and textile cooperative called the Asociacion Civil Apu Salkantay, Warmicuna de Mollepata, in Mollepata, Anta Province, Peru.

Spindles were not offered for sale in the weaving shop, but upon learning of my interest in spinning, one of the women went home and came back in a few minutes with a plastic grocery bag filled with loose shafts and whorls.  We fitted a few together and I purchased 3 spindles, with some raw Alpaca fiber to spin.  I understood that she made the spindles herself.  

These spindles are "low whorl" spindles.  The shafts are sticks that, according to Abby Franquemont (https://abbysyarns.com/2011/02/peruvian-spindles-my-spindles/) are peeled and whittled into shape. The whorls are turned on a lathe, with ornamental lines burned into the wood. The tag pictured is for a beautiful handwoven gray Alpaca shawl I purchased from the shop; I include it because it identifies the name and location of the Warmicuna de Mollepata weaving and textile cooperative.

During our travels I saw men and women using spindles like these to spin Alpaca and wool yarns.  I enjoy having and spinning with these working momentos of our trip.