Yes, you had to miss out on a fresh blog post this morning! You must have been slightly disappointed… Monday’s blogpost counted for 2! Don’t you think? Yesterday we had a rather calm day where we headed out on the streets to shoot some more fashion. A productive ‘quickie’. 4 good pictures in 1 hour… we make a good team!
While Griet was working on the pictures I headed to DIA by myself, where my ladies knit & crochet, to follow up the quality of the samples. Now, me and orientation… It’s like water and fire. Even though I’ve walked to DIA a zillion times, I of course, got lost. In the meanwhile I stepped into a hole in the ground, hurt my foot, started bleeding… Haha, it must have been a funny sight! A blond European girl, trying to ask for the way to DIA in a language that is far from Spanish, with red Keds (sneakers) from a bleeding foot, and idem dito red cheeks from running around like a chicken without a head (once more; no real English).
I eventually made it to DIA an hour late, got my foot cleaned and disinfected and was ready for a strict quality check. The ladies are so good in what they do…! They take everything very serious. They weigh the samples I took with from Belgium and make sure the sample they make weighs exactly the same. Of course that the other size dimensions are correct too. Quality seems to be a difficult thing for brands that are produced abroad. It can make or break you. I’m quite blessed I must say. All the LN|Andes items that have been made so far are all more than perfect. Good job, once more!
Since we didn’t plan to write a blog post we took the time to already make a selection in the fashion pictures we did so far. I must say… It looks more than good. Next year I’m taking my LN|Andes model, namely beauty Els Schoofs, and a stylist with me. This year’s shoot was a good test, and it tastes like more! But again… you will have to wait until Friday morning to see the result.
After a lovely dinner with great Peruvian food (hmm Trucha), vino blanco dulce, and of course the best company, top chick Griet, we went to bed really early, as always, ready for another exciting and productive day!
Today we headed towards Santa Ana. Santa Ana is located in Ayacucho and is a part of the village where you can find a lot of musea that focus on the heritage of the (natural) colouring of the rough yarn, and the production of beautiful typical Peruvian handmade items such as woven pieces of art.
Within ‘the chain’ the colouring process was the only thing, which I hadn’t seen with my own eyes yet. Now, within my LN|Andes collection you have a few natural colours, namely white, beige, black, … and artificial colours. The natural colours have not been dyed, but it’s just the natural colour of the alpaca. Rough white alpaca yarn is more expensive than other natural colours because of the fact that only the white is suitable fur further colouring.
You have two ways of colouring; the artificial (chemical) and the natural. My LN|Andes collection is artificially coloured, but in the future, once I have my own alpaca farm, this will be done in a natural way. The process of natural colouring is simply amazing… By boiling the rough white alpaca yarn with natural ‘ingredients’ such as leaves, cactus fungus, etc… you create the most stunning colours. Very interesting to see/learn.
I tried some spinning myself, but it seemed like I better stick to the designing, knitting and crocheting, ‘ahum’! Can’t wait to have an entire collection that is 100% human, natural and handmade. But it will take time. Good things come to those who wait…
A lunch, another fashion shoot, another ice cream, another blog post and another lovely dinner later… We’re ready for bed and for our very last day in beautiful Ayacucho!
Thursday morning we’re off to humid Lima again, the final stop before we head back to… (I hope) freezing Belgium!
Winter is where my heart is… Does it tell? 2 knit brands?
Till Thursday!
LN
