Crossing the street into Ecuador: Rainy Season Ends

Another month has passed, and yes, we are still loving this country and our home of five months.
We are still attending Spanish class two days a week. Nosotros estudiamos espanol todos los dias.
A few highlights this past month: we were given a tour of our Spanish teacher's sweater factory; a trip to the weavers of Paguchi, and Bruce celebrated his 70th birthday... You will enjoy pictures of all within this update.

The sweater factory: Don Miguel imports raw wool or alpaca from Peru. (FYI: he imports wool from Peru because the quality is much better than Ecuadorian wool.) It comes in 800 pound bundles to his factory. He takes it to another local factory where it is stretched, dyed, and spun into skeins of yarn. The process is fascinating. As the wool is stretched into barrels it is then pulled from the barrels and spun into yarn, skeins of yarn are then dipped into a dye, then dried on the lawn outside the factory. Much of the machinery used in this process is over 100 years old and still working every day to produce this fine product.

Ecuadorian wool which is never used in Don Miguel's factory. This was wool from another customer.

Peruvian wool

The stretching machine

the small dying vats are used to make multicolor yarn. The skeins are loaded and one end is dipped in the vat. After soaking it drys and is turned on the hanger and dipped in the vat again for a new color and the process continued untill all the colors are added.

Spinning the yarn

The large dying vat for one color yarn

Drying the yarn

The skeins are then returned to Don Miguel's factory, where he delivers the skeins to his "knitters", these are women living in the mountain villages surrounding Ibarra. There are literally hundreds of knitters. These women hand knit each sweater to the design they are given; the completed
sweater is returned to the factory, where the buttons, zippers, labels, etc. are attached. Then, they are
packaged, boxed, and shipped to Don Miguel's clients.. Except for the zippers almost all of these things are done by hand including packing and sealing of boxes.. At present, all his buyers are in European countries, France, England, etc. This week a container of sweaters, scarves and hats was sent to France. Before a container is shipped there is usually a big push to complete the order. Because of this Claudia had an opportunity to help a couple of days in the factory with sewing fleece bands in stocking caps. It has given us a new appreciation for all the details and workmanship that goes into a handmade article of clothing. Most of these beautiful hand knit sweaters sell in Europe for $200.00+.

Scarves and sweaters.

Completing belts for sweaters.

Sewing on buttons.

Knitting sweaters

Many of the sweaters have zippers and then a placket that buttons over the zippers.

Boxes ready to be filled

Now, about this birthday. Bruce turned 70 years old on May 17th. Who woulda' thunk he would be retired, living in Cotacachi, Ecuador, on his 70th birthday.. His birthday actually lasted four days. It
began with dinner at the Hacienda with Claudia, a very special meal in a very special place; then
a BBQ with neighbors, beef filet and all the trimmings. It pays to have a gourmet cook in the neighborhood. We have great neighbors, who have become great friends. As a test of our mail service, Bruce also received one birthday card from the US, took 10 days to get it here :-) but good to know the possibilities.

Finally we went to El Condor in Paguchi. This area is known for there hand woven items. On a quiet ride through this part of the country, with your windows down you can hear the sound of the looms in the homes as they work away creating these beautiful items. The patterns and techniques have been handed down through generations. We were in awe of the brilliant colors and intricate patterns, let alone the time involved in creating these intricate pieces of art. They take the wool after shearing and cleaning and card it by hand. Then it is spun into yarn and wound onto spools. During this process they also dye the wool themselves, creating the dyes from plants and even insects. The items are woven on Spanish looms or Inca looms. After watching the demonstrations we couldn't believe the time it takes and physical endurance to bring there creations from the raw wool to finished product.