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This article appears in The Knitting Magazine (first sold in UK April 2008)

The Mirasol Project: Changing the World

In the biting winds of the high sierras of the Peruvian Andes stands 14- year-old Mirasol. Alongside is her younger brother and together they care for a herd of 350 alpaca on the Mallkini ranch. The alpaca have their luxuriousy bushy coats to protect them from the elements. Not so Mirasol, her face is pretty but burned by the sun and ravaged by the fierce winds. Like all the Quechua-speaking people who live high in the Andes, she lives with her family in a mud hut with no windows or doors and only an open fireplace for warmth. At night, to cope with the ice-cold temperatures, she sleeps fully clothed. The walk to the nearest school is ten miles, so she rarely goes.

The Mirasol project, which is based at the Mallkini ranch, was set up in 2006 and named after the little girl and all that she represents. The company who run the Mallkmi ranch, Michell and Co, have always had the interests of their employees at heart but wanted to go one step further in securing their future The project aims to raise enough money from the sale of alpaca wool and cotton yams to finance the establishment and running of a boarding centre for the children who, with their families, tend the alpaca herds. The centre will focus on an integrated health and education programme so that the families of the alpaca shepherds have a secure place where the children can develop their potential.

Lofty ideals

The Mirasol Project is desperately needed. A survey taken in 2002 rated Peru last of 41 nations in terms of educational provision. The people of the Puno region where the ranch is situated have one of the lowest levels of health and education in the whole of Peru. The illiteracy rate is 95 per cent. Malnutrition, with its associated health problems such as anaemia, is endemic. The situation is not helped by the fact that since 1980, Peru has experienced periods of political unrest which have particularly affected the already disadvantaged Quechua-speaking communities.
In providing dormitories for boys and girls, a dining room, a sports area and classrooms where children can receive assistance with their regular school homework, the boarding house will be a centre where the children can develop personal, occupational and communication skills. But in no way do the plans for the centre devalue the culture and traditions of the area. As well as an awareness of other cultures, the centre will focus on the preservation of the language and customs of the children and their families. Realistic career opportunities will be highlighted and training given in local skills, such as trout farming, market gardening, the breeding and care of guinea pigs as a food source, traditional textile arts and languages. Alongside these provisions, more lofty ideals are in place. The centre will foster the principles of peace, tolerance and equality with a respect for human rights and basic freedoms.
Money already raised from the sale of Mirasol yarns has meant that the building of the centre can begin. Despite very difficult weather conditions in the Peruvian highlands over the winter, considerable progress has been made. Using local materials and know-how where possible, all the walls are finished and work has begun on the electrical wiring. Concrete floors have been laid and materials have been purchased to build the roofs. Kari Hestnes of Du Store Alpakka in Norway, one of the European distributors of the yarns, has recently paid a visit to see how the work is progressing She says, "I must admit, I had tears in my eyes when I saw how far they had come If I were completely honest, I don't thinkI really believed that this dream could be fulfilled".

To avoid Jealousy between the children who work on the Mallkim ranch and the children in the neighbouring village of Neke Neke, two more rooms need to be added to the centre to accommodate more children. With determination in her voice, Kari comments, "We just have to go back home and raise more money because there are still a lot of things that need to be done: The children and parents of Mallkini, taken on a conducted tour of the site, were wide-eyed with amazement "It will be the best place in the whole country," they said with pride.

Before Kari and her husband, Per Svendsen, left for the return trip to Norway, they decided to give a little token of their appreciation to the
hard-working building team. They drove twenty miles to the nearest shops to find that rare luxury in the Puno region: bottles of beer. Returning triumphantly with a bottle for each worker, Kari recalls, "We were greeted with cheers. Beer at nine o'clock in the morning is a welcome break from work when you have been up since five: A small amount of beer was sacrificed to Pachamama, the Inca Mother Earth goddess -a wise decision as she is generally a benevolent goddess, but can cause the occasional earthquake! Speeches were made, hugs exchanged and photos taken to record the joyous moment.

Culture shock

Another visitor to the ranch has been the young British knitwear designer, Jane Ellison, who creates the designs for the range of Mirasol yarns. She wanted to see for herself what the project is all about "It was the first time I had been to a developing country, so the poverty I saw when I arrived in Lima was a bit of a shock," she explains, "but even more so when we travelled into the mountains where the ranch is situated. You are in the middle of nowhere with no radio signals around the nearest phone being an hour away".

She also suffered from altitude sickness but saw this as a positive thing, forcing her to slow down and see life as it is for the indigenous people. She comments, "Although the poverty is extreme, you get a sense of community and peacefulness. There was none of the anger you associate with city life. It was also very humbling, things I would normally worry about at home seemed unimportant".

Jane feels that it was very important to travel to Peru and the trip has affected her in many surprising ways. " Throughout this project, the ancient Andean culture has been an amazing source of inspiration," she says and unexpectedly, so has the weather. For the photo shoot for the first collection of garments, Jane travelled to the remote Munani region by Lake Titicaca and was particularly affected by the varied weather conditions, from the chilly weak sunshine of early dawn to the piercing midday glare of the sun, giving way to rain or even hall in a matter of minutes. The constantly changing light has in itself been an inspiration, influencing her choice of varied yarns and designs ''as each one produces a completely different look and feel," she explains.

Pima cotton is used to produce the Cotanani and Samp'a yarns in the Mirasol range Peruvian pima cotton is the softest, finest and longest staple cotton in the world. Native Peruvians have been growing Pima cotton since ancient times due to its softness, fineness and durability. Grown mainly on the northern coast of Peru where there is a year-round microclimate which suits this cotton, It has a long and fine fibre which needs to be picked by hand rather than machine to avoid tangles. It has a lustre and softness not seen in other cottons. Jane comments, "I feel it is very important to support the traditions that provide such beautiful yarns".

Growing things organically involves giving up the use of artificial fertilisers in favour of natural ones, such as growing nitrogen-producing clover or peas alongside the cotton crop. Again, no artificial insecticides are allowed, only pheromone traps or other biological means. Growing and picking are small scale to avoid the use of heavy machinery that might compact the earth or damage the crop.

The Mirasol Prolect incorporates many of the ideals that Jane holds most dear. She favours returning to an organic way of life in which you care about what you eat or what you wear and she feels that knitting enthusiasts want to be in touch with nature a fact that has underpinned the modern resurgence of hand knitting, where garments are lovingly created rather than being mass produced. She wishes that the principle of Fairtrade, on which the Mirasol Project is founded, could become the basis for all world trade. She believes that producers should receive a price that covers the cost of sustainable production plus an extra premium that is invested in social or economic development projects such as the Mirasol Project.

In this way, Fairtrade guarantees that disadvantaged producers in the developing world gel a better deal for their products Jane has a very clear moral viewpoint, which developed from her early experiences in the textile business. On leaving college, she got a Job designing for a company that mass produced garments in the Far East and sold them very cheaply in 'budget' high street stores. She was shocked when she discovered the conditions in which the garments were produced.
"The workers were in factories that were so cold, they had to wear layers of clothing and work through the night. In addition, they were only paid a pittance per garment which was then sold at a huge mark-up, so the profit margin was outrageous." Disillusioned, she left the company. This was an early and crucial influence on Jane's attitude 10 the textile business.

Her involvement with the Mirasol Project based on the principles of Fair Trade is an opportunity for her to redress the balance and encourage those principles she feels should be at the heart of the texlile business. The logo for The Mirasol brand is an Aztec sun, but a spokesman for Knitting Fever, the American distributor of Mirasol Yarns, says the logo could equally be a square. At each corner of the square is a factor which contributes to the success of the brand good yarns, good designs, good marketing and strong support from customers who appreciate the Fair Trade ethic.

A Small Step

Jane has enjoyed designing for Mirasol Yarns and has produced a beautiful collection of winter garments for the first pattern book to showcase the yams which include merino wool, pima cotton, baby llama wool and a blend of merino, alpaca and silk. On a recent visit to Canada to give workshops based on her designs, she met with an enthusiastic crowd of knitters. One fan described the baby llama yarn, Miski, as being as 'soft as a whisper'. After this very successful debut collection, Jane has now completed a second collection of spring and summer garments and accessories featuring the new summer yarns, Samp'a, an organic cotton yarn, T'ika, a pima cotton and Cotanani, a pima cotton and wool blend.

Cotanani is rather special because, in the dyeing process, just the wool is dyed with the cotton left white producing unusually subtle blends of colour. When developing a design, Jane's aim is not to copy what is available on the high street, but to create a garment that will complement what people may already have in the" wardrobe and also be a little bit out of the ordinary. She specialises in producing patterns that are easy to follow and straightforward to knit because she likes knitters to enjoy the process, but she has also focused on design features that will make the garments enjoyable to wear.

The very varied collection includes a long dress, a boat-neck jumper, a three-quarter sleeve cardigan and a sideways-knitted kimono top. Jane hopes that her designs will inspire knitters to buy Mirasol yarns and support such a worthy cause. As she says, "I feel it is good to know that I, like many consumers, can make a difference no matter how small it may seem." So, knitting enthusiasts, how about taking a small step to change the world?