Yo weave con las chicas

I've spent the last two afternoons with Trama, a women's collective in Xela where K'iche' women teach gringas like me how to make all those beautiful scarves that we've seen on sale in every town in Guatemala.

When I went in I only intended to check out prices but ended up starting my 5 hour project. As a novice, in five hours you can only create something small, so my creation would be a mini scarf.
I started by choosing my colours and then designing my pattern, which is basically just writing a list of how many rows you want of each colour of thread and in what order. I then spent about 70 minutes winding my threads around the tabletop loom with the help of Orelia, who showed me how to knot in a new colour each time.
Trama was then closing for the day, so there wasn't time to put my weave onto the backstrap loom. Instead, I watched as Orelia transferred Margi's weave onto one, ready for the next day.

When I went back today it was time to start my weaving proper! I just love the atmosphere at this place. I think it's because, when you see just how much effort it takes to make something and how beautiful the process is, you just feel that it's a really special thing to see. And you also feel really lucky that these women are willing to share that knowledge with you. There's a really quiet and concentrated yet warm atmosphere. Speaking to Margi and Angela, I think we all felt like we were part of something special, being able to learn here.

 But I just couldn't get my head around it! Orelia was trying to explain to me that there are two processes that you repeat but as I was sat there in the back strap loom it felt more like 5 different processes in no particular order. Orelia swapped places with me to demonstrate again and I was just about getting it, thank God, as I think she was getting a bit frustrated with me, nice as she was. I just needed a bit of "reassurance" in English so Vanessa, one of the English speaking volunteers sat with me for a few 'tramas' and then I was off!

Four hours later and I now have a small piece of woven cloth, which I am very proud of! Not quite enough for a scarf but it'll be nice in the middle of the dinner table. Muchas gracias las chicas de Trama.