Our Designer Visits Krochet Kids Peru

I'm Cristina and I am the Designer here at KKi. I was able to spend 2 weeks at our project location in Peru working on samples for upcoming seasons. The highlight of the trip was definitely meeting and working with all of the women that make up KKPeru. We spent our first morning in Peru meeting all of the women and each lady was able to share a little bit about herself with us. The common theme between all of the ladies there were how grateful they are to have an opportunity to work, a place that provides childcare for them, and how excited they are that all of this is taking place in the community of El Pacfico. We spent one of our afternoons walking through the area of El Pacfico to see where the ladies that we employ live. During this walk we saw many of the challenges that these women face every day. It's a challenge for them just to have clean drinking water and food to eat. Many of the ladies support not only themselves and their children but also many support their extended family who all live in the same small house. But now these ladies have the opportunity to walk to work and provide for their families. It was awesome for me to be able to spend time at our project location because anything made by hand provides tons of interesting design challenges as there can be so many variances in the product. Each of the different yarns or knitting techniques we use can make a product turn out completely different. I spent most of my time in Peru going through each design to figure out what would work and what wouldn't. Having the ability to knit products in Peru is going to allow for so many new design opportunities. I am already so excited about the new styles we have coming from Peru in the next few seasons, and you should be too! - Cristina