Nudo peruano

The Peruvian knot is a textile technique that belongs to the macramé’s family.

Macramé is a knotting technique found in many ancient cultures like the Egyptian, the Assyrian and the Chinese. But perhaps the most famous knotting weavers were the Arabs, who used a technique of knots to finish the fringes of their loom woven pieces, from kilims to towels. The contact of the Europeans with the Arabs (in the Iberian Peninsula and later in the Crusades of the Middle East) made the knots’ technique being introduced in Europe. Many social classes have been harnessed to macramé, such as nuns, sailors, peasants and even ladies of the European courts. The technique reached its zenith in the Victorian era, when it suddenly disappeared and reborn with brightly in the early 70's folk.

The different arrangement and different types of knots create the designs in macramé. However, the Peruvian knot technique, like the cavendoli knot, is able to draw geometric shapes or free designs as the ones made on a loom, but instead of weaving, knotting.

The Peruvian knot is not really related to the famous Peruvian knots of Inca quipus. Quipus were a system to record statistical information, eg census, livestock, perhaps even events that happened, with ropes of different lengths, widths and colours. One or several knots were tied on these ropes. But, apart from the wrong name, the technique in question has nothing to do with this, because what we are going to do is express ourselves artistically.

In my opinion, the origin of the Peruvian knot is the following. As this technique is currently taking place especially in Argentina, I think the Peruvian knot is an evolution of the cavendoli´s macramé technique. Probably carried by the Italians to Argentina during their migration.

Leaving the etymology and history aside. The fact is that the Peruvian knot offers many possibilities. On the one hand, the variety of objects to develop, carpets, bags, belts, bracelets, etc. and on the other hand, is fun and relaxing. We do not need loom, so we can be knitting either at the beach or on the terrace. This technique deserves to be part of our textile wisdom.