Reina Large Hand Beaded Crochet Wayuu Bag

The Wayuu women start learning about knitting when they are little girls watching their mothers knit. They gain more extensive training during puberty, when they are cloistered for long periods of time and their moms and grandmothers (the only people who can see them during this period) teach them sewing, weaving, cooking, and other useful skills. Wayuu women are such skilled knitters that they even knit while they walk around!  In their culture, a myth says that a spider-like deity taught a Wayuu woman how to knit. Wayuu bags represent the Wayuu women's lives. They carry their lives. The bags start “small, like our lives and the straps represent our destiny.