Sola en Guatemala: Clase de Tejido!

The Best Thing I Did: Weaving Class

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Xela, and the Mayan Highlands, was to ogle the textiles. But when I read that I could actually learn something about the process of making them, I was beside myself with anticipation. The day I signed up for my weaving class I was giddy with excitement, skipping home cackling to myself. Yup, pretty much a crazy gringa.

For reasons I can't quite put my finger on, I have a deep visceral connection to fabric, and the more colorful the better. I have carted home rugs, throws, wall hangings, napkins, wraps, and swaths of fabric from every country I have been to. The idea of producing something myself took it to another level. The fact that I could learn it from an all-women's cooperative and practice my Spanish in the process was just gravy. So many men were killed or just disappeared during Guatemala's incredibly long (30+ years) and recent (ending in 1996) civil war. Many women were left without husbands, brothers, sons, etc. and this usually meant a serious lack of income as well. Cooperatives like this one were not uncommon, and allow these women a way to earn a living while also keeping alive a very old skill, one that dates back over 5000 years (according to Xela's weaving museum!)

The style of weaving most commonly practiced in Guatemala is called back-strap weaving, because the weaver wraps a belt around her body and uses it to create tension in the weaving project. Tension allows the weaver to pass the cross-thread back and forth through the long thread, thereby slowly weaving your project together. I obviously don't know any of the technical terms, but here are my photos of the process.

Day 1: Rolling thread into balls takes a long time

One and a half hours, to be exact, to roll four balls of thread. Oh boy, this could take me a looooong time. Still, it was exciting, and it was my birthday, so it was off to a good start!

I selected 4 colors of thread, and rolled two strands together into a ball. One loop of thread went around each of the wooden turn-styles in front of me, and these rotated as I rolled. Pretty simple-- but still somehow took me 1.5 hours!

The scarf is the sample I chose to mimic--I will weave this same pattern, using my colors (rolled and ready in the basket!). The notebook was done by my teacher, and it lays out the pattern that I will wind my thread into for the next step--which will eventually turn into the scarf pattern!

Day 2: Next you wind, then you weave!

On Day 2, I spent the first hour under the very watchful eye of these 2 fabulous women, as I wound my thread, in order and according to my pattern count. So I am winding, following the numbers of the notebook--i.e. wind 10 blue strands, followed by 15 stands of base color, 5 strands of lilac, 15 stands of base color, repeat.

There are two key things happening here. 1.) You are laying out the entire length of your scarf, in order of your color pattern, and 2.) You are winding your thread into two Xs, thru which you will later pass your cross thread (over and over again) to weave your scarf together!

See the 2 Xs at the far end of my project. That is why the women had to watch--if you mess up your Xs you really can't weave anything together. Also they counted my pattern for me, as I continually lost my count, concentrating as I was on not missing my Xs!!

These are the two main women of Trama Textiles, but there are lots of others who help out. The older woman (pink shirt) told me she's been weaving since she was 10--for over 50 years! All my instruction was in Spanish, which made it even more fun!

Setting me up for the next phase: actually weaving. She is doing the hard part, which is looping a thread between every single strand of my long threads--you can see her orange/yellow threads attached to the wooden dowel. I will then pull up on the wooden dowel, which will in turn pull up my long threads, allowing me to pass my cross-thread through...and weave this thing together!

Finally weaving: this was hard to get the hang of at first, and this child, popping bubble gum in my ear and "helpfully" doing it for me did not speed things up. Poco a poco, as they say, in learning Spanish and learning weaving.

"Like this, see?" Ummm, nope! (But note how she is pulling up on that dowel with the yellow/orange thread--she will then pass the wooden tamp thru, and use it to create more tension and to pass the cross-thread thru. Looking back now, it doesn't seem that hard!)

After I wrested my weaving tools away from the little girl and did it myself for a while, I began to get the knack.

Days 3 - 5: Weaving it all together

After my first day of weaving, wherein I wove for 2 1/2 hours and got the steps pretty well imbedded in my brain, the rest of the days were independent. The women would just help me get set up (get the backstrap on, nice and tight so there was tension) and help whenever there was a problem, like a thread breaking or snarling. But otherwise weaving is a peaceful, slow process, and I just chipped away at it, listening to the chatter in Spanish around me and watching the comings and goings, while passing my cross-thread back and forth, back and forth, and moving my "pattern stick" every seven rows (to create a pretty little pattern in the scarf) and studiously not looking at how much remained to be done.

I timed it one round: 4 minutes 30 seconds to weave 7 rows and move the stick. In 45 minutes I wove about 10 inches. It took me 12 hours total for the project, with 9 of that being spent on weaving itself. It is worth pointing out the obvious: my pattern was quite simple, and my thread was heavy and easy to work with. To get a picture of what it's really like for these women, imagine a much, much more complicated pattern, with very fine silky thread, and weaving oh, about 100 times faster!

On a roll now! Note how I'm creating tension with my left hand, pulling up on the wooden tamp. Next I'll pass the cross-thread (wound on a stick here) thru this space, then tamp it neatly and tightly into place. Voila--one row!


Close up of my project--the "pattern stick" gets pulled out and moved up every 7 rows. You can see that it leaves a pretty little space behind in the weaving each time you move it up.

Happy weaving. Sometimes I would get cold and have to get up and do jumping jacks. But it's hard to get up--you are literally fastened to your project by the backstrap, so you have to think strategically about breaks.

The colors of the trade. The green piece is the backstrap that goes around your hips.

Other student projects, waiting for the weaver to return and start up again.

A friend from my Spanish language school was also making a project. Angel was Chinese, living in the US, travelling in Guatemala, with poor English and no Spanish. I admired her even attempting this project! And it was fun for me because I helped her translate in Spanish. She is making a "sampler" and not the full scarf, since she had less time.