more dirty textiles

I spent the last couple of weeks looking at early colonial textiles from a site on the north coast of Peru.  In time I may be able to post pictures but you aren't missing a whole lot without the visuals, because the things I saw had just come out of the ground and were so encrusted with dirt that in many cases it took hours of cleaning to figure out what they were.  The textiles, mostly scraps of things, have been all mixed up in the ground due to centuries of looting, so it's not possible to date many of them with certainty from context alone.  However, IF we are able to get permission to take samples and IF dates from said samples indicate that the pieces are 16th-17th century, I may have studied some of the earliest knitting in South America.  At this point I am cautiously optimistic that two of the pieces found, striped stockinette tubes, represent early importation of the technique of knitting to the Americas.  They are both knit with multiple strands of singles cotton yarn such as was used for indigenous weaving.  One piece has half the stitches held on a yarn and the other half continue in a garterstitch band.  The whole thing looks to my mind very much like a sock top with a heel flap.  Because of the yarn and the incompleteness of the piece, it´s almost certain that the knitting was done here in Peru.  The second piece even has a simple fair isle pattern of blue and white squares!  They look like bedraggled sad little raveling objects, fully saturated with dessert dust and dirt, but they could be important evidence of the spread of knitting. 

And there was not only knitting, but lots of fascinating woven textiles, including  many pieces with twill damask stripes.  The twill is 2/1 and the damask makes an elaborate pattern of stepped diagonals and interlocking spirals.  At first glance, it looks like a floor-loom product, but these patterns appear on four-selvedge textiles.  I´m wondering if some special heddling was used, possibly some kind of dual lease system with pattern rods?  In order to fully understand it, I'll have to review a lot of structural information which is presently deep at the back of my brain.  There are examples of indigenous cloth with hemmed seams, and mixing of indigenous and imported fabrics, and even early buttons made of rolled wool fabric felted into little toggles.  Amazing stuff.

In my personal textile creation efforts, I encountered a sad setback.  I got to the very end of the center of the Weeping Willow shawl (pictured in the last post, the blue thing) and found that I had forgotten the directions for attaching the border!  I have the graph, but no word directions and unfortunately, I can't remember how the pattern handles turning the corners, or even whether the border is in stockinette or garter stitch.  So I've tucked the almost-shawl into the back of my suitcase for the time being and I'll finish it when I get home.  In the meantime I started two others.  Hey, I have a couple long flights coming up.  You really wouldn't want me to run out of knitting over the Carribean ocean.  I'll be home soon, and I can't wait to revisit all my projects and start making things again! 

Comments

[June]

Earliest knitting in South America - how cool!!!

Hope you are doing well down there. :)

[claudia]

I really think you have an important contribution to make in the area of ancient textiles. I mean, how many archaeologists can there be with your level of hands on experience and understanding?

[diana]

Very cool. Sounds like those artifacts are among the earliest knitted pieces in the Americas. There are knitted artifacts from New England, but date to later in the 17th century. Hope you're having a good trip!

[Jennifer Anderson]

I have two Peruvian Hairless dogs and I live in San Francisco. It gets cold in the winter and I'd love for them to be dressed in a traditional style. Can you tell me how to get a hold of some doggie clothes, but Peruvian style?