We went to Chinchero this morning. The Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco was magical, for weavers (me!) and non-weavers (Lee) alike. They sat us down on a bench and walked us through each step of the process, from wool straight from the sheep and alpaca, to washing the wool, spinning, and plying. Then we were shown all the different natural sources of the dyes - leaves, sticks, berries, cochineal beetles taken off the cactus. We got to stir the wool around in the cochineal dye as our guide added different minerals to set the dyes. Lee's pot turned orange and mine was a deep red. Very cool.

Cochineal beetles live on the cactus and when crushed make the most beautiful colored dyes.

We used cochineal to dye wool crimson and orange.

We also saw how they warped and wove on their backstrap looms, including the addition of a woven trim that's added to the edges of many of the fabrics. I could have sat and watched that step for quite awhile, as that's new for me. But they were ready for us to move onto the showrooms, where we were happy to spend a bit of money.

On our trip back to Cusco our driver stopped so we could take some pictures of the nearby mountains. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them tomorrow when we start our hike.