— Learning to Weave

In Chinchero and other mountain communities most girls and some boys learn to weave at six or seven years old. From an early age they have fun playing with their mothers’ spindle and yarns, experimenting on their own until they learn to spin fine yarn. Then they start weaving narrow ribbons called jakimas (pronounced “hakimas”).

Often older sisters, brothers or adults help the children learn to make their first narrow backstrap “looms” starting with twenty or thirty threads.