Tejedor hidalgo
LOGARO es el acrónimo de una artesana textil, Lola García Romanelli, y reúne en estas tres sílabas esas cualidades esenciales con las que un buen tejedor debe enfrentar su labor: creatividad, grandes dosis de paciencia y empeño, habilidad y técnica.
Lola comenzó su andadura textil en la infancia, de la mano de técnicas tradicionales como frivolité, tejido de punto, ganchillo y ganchillo con horquilla. Su familia tiene una larga vida dentro de la industria textil en el País Vasco, lo que ha enriquecido esa base tradicional. Sin embargo la parte más innovadora le llega por sus estudios de ingeniería, patronaje industrial y formación en retacería en escuelas de Madrid, Barcelona y Estados Unidos, lo que ha potenciado su lado creativo. Su trayectoria profesional arranca en 1992 con la creación de un taller textil aparte de trabajando con diseñadores de diferentes áreas de la moda. Es en 1998, al obtener su certificado de artesano cuando crea su propia marca, Logaro.
Actualmente, todo su saber adquirido después de tantos años de estudio además de experiencias lo emplea en un espacio confeccionado a su medida en las galerías Centrales de Orense: HILOKUNE, una tienda de lanas seleccionadas según criterios de calidad, sostenibilidad y diseño, que también acoge el Estudio Textil Logaro, centro neurálgico de Hilokune, taller creativo de Lola y escuela en la que transmitir todo su conocimiento.
¿Cuál es el primer recuerdo que tienes de ti misma con unas agujas en la mano y rodeada de lana?
Sólo tenía 5 años, pero son momentos inolvidables. Recuerdo que mi madre tenía por aquel entonces una caja llena de rulos para moldear el pelo con sus respectivos pinchitos para sujetarlos, y yo aprendí a tejer sola con ellos. Ella tejía profesionalmente pero nunca me enseñó como hacerlo, así que aprendí yo sola observándola y con sus pinchitos del pelo tejía a escondidas en los rincones para que no me viese.
¿Si pudieses regresar a este momento, qué consejo tejeril te darías?
Haber preguntado si me enseñaba, (risas..). No obstante ser autodidacta me proporcionó las bases necesarias para posicionarme perfectamente en el tejido, para reconocer que es lo que ocurre en cada momento en todos los puntos que lo construyen. El mío fue un aprendizaje de observación y comprensión, en el cual sigo creyendo y además comunico a diario a mis alumnos.
Cómo creadora seguro que tienes algún recurso original para afrontar tu proceso de trabajo. ¿Qué es lo que te inspira y cómo lo consigues materializar? ¿Existe un método LOGARO?
Suelo decir que los materiales en ocasiones me hablan, al tocarlos y observarlos me sugieren cosas y suelo dejarme llevar por ellos. Pero existen otros procesos, cuando trabajas para otra persona. En estos casos es la persona quien establece los materiales y las dimensiones, con lo cual hay que acotarse en esos datos y consensuar hasta llegar al diseño final. Cada proyecto tiene su situación particular y yo me adapto con mucha facilidad, se podría decir que soy bastante camaleónica en mis maneras de enfrentar un diseño, pero no sé si eso se puede considerar un método.
Tus diseños demuestran, entre otras muchas cosas, que eres una tejedora a la que le apasiona la técnica lo que se traduce en amplio conocimiento. Explícanos algún proceso (¡sí, uno más!), que consideres imprescindible por sencillo e ingenioso y que a ti nunca te falle.
Los tensores, me refiero a los dedos que manejan la tensión del hilo cuando tejes. Practico diariamente en mi taller diferentes formas de tejer en función del proyecto que esté realizando, el material, el punto… Prefiero no tejer siempre de la misma manera, cada sistema de tejido le aporta características diferentes al punto, cada lana tiene su tensión y una forma adecuada de llevar los hilos que consigue que ese tejido quede mejor. Aprender a controlar las tensiones y generar uniformidad, o no, en los proyectos, controlando esa situación a tu antojo para mí es muy, muy importante. Por eso recomiendo a todos mis alumnos que no se cierren a un solo sistema o forma de tejer, les animo a que las prueben todas y aprendan a controlar esos matices. Cuantas más dinámicas pruebes y observes, más control sobre el tejido tendrás, y en esto los tensores juegan un papel muy importante (aquí podría estar hablando horas con ejemplos ,risas..)
¿Qué cualidades de tu personalidad se reflejan en tus creaciones?
Pasión, pragmatismo, imaginación, habilidad, constancia, alegría.
A nosotros nos gustan todos tus diseños, ¿tienes alguno del que te sientas especialmente orgullosa? Si es así, ¿por qué?
Siempre estoy orgullosa de mis últimas creaciones ya que son las que demuestran mi evolución y crecimiento. Ahora mismo estoy muy satisfecha con mis tres últimas piezas:
– Toscana Sweater por lo transgresor y anárquico en su desarrollo de confección.
– Chal Auria por trabajar con estructuras ensamblables. Este es un diseño muy personal, muy mío, y después de ver la gran aceptación que ha tenido en Barcelona Knits, escuchar todas esas palabras amables que ha inspirado… me siento muy feliz con esta pieza.
-Y Tulip Shawl por desarrollar una forma de tejer el punto brioche muy diferente a los estándares actuales y que defino como “briochepro”. También por su representación gráfica, más sintética y visual, pero con alcance para plasmar todas las partes del desarrollo del proyecto.
Se habla mucho de comunidad en el mundo tejeril. ¿Te sientes parte de este todo o te consideras un espíritu libre? ¿Tienes algún referente dentro de este universo del punto, alguien a quien admires?
Me considero un espíritu libre, mis inquietudes tejeriles son, como bien decías, la técnica, el control sobre el tejido y los retos personales. Me apasiona desarrollar combinaciones que me resulten inquietantes y con las que sé que mis alumnos van a disfrutar tejiendo.
En cuanto a diseñadores cuyo trabajo me conmueva… soy un poco “Dorita”(risas..) con los nombres, pero me gustan diseñadores como Tashashu Gordon, Kieran Foley, Alice Starmore, y más conocidos como Nancy Marchant o Westknit.
Queremos saber más de ti, sentimos curiosidad, ¿cómo organizas tu bolsa de labores? ¿cuáles son tus herramientas?
Siempre trabajo en varios diseños a la vez por lo que tengo más de una bolsa de labor preparada. En cualquiera de ellas nunca falta una libreta, un lápiz, y una goma de borrar, si está en el lápiz mejor, así no tengo que buscarla (mis amigos me regalan lápices con goma como recuerdo de sus viajes, saben que es lo que mas agradezco). Las agujas Square Hilokune de Logaro son vitales para mí (es mi línea de agujas profesional), algún marcador Hilokune y aparte de la lana del proyecto que me ocupe también llevo algunas bolas de lana extra junto con unas agujas cortas de muestreo para tejer cualquier idea que venga a mi mente y no olvidarla.
Para terminar hablemos de futuro ¿cómo te imaginas HILOKUNE dentro de 10 años?
No suelo pensar a tan largo plazo. Hilokune es el espacio que envuelve a Estudio Logaro, un pequeño estudio/ taller artesanal, junto a una pequeña academia y una selecta tienda de lanas. Tres actividades que se desarrollan simultáneamente bajo un mismo paraguas, nutriéndose las unas de las otras en perfecta simbiosis. Me lo imagino un poco más grande y consolidado como referente de formación, colaboración y creación textil.
Queremos saber más de ti, sentimos curiosidad, ¿cómo organizas tu bolsa de labores? ¿cuáles son tus herramientas?
Siempre trabajo en varios diseños a la vez por lo que tengo más de una bolsa de labor preparada. En cualquiera de ellas nunca falta una libreta, un lápiz, y una goma de borrar, si está en el lápiz mejor, así no tengo que buscarla (mis amigos me regalan lápices con goma como recuerdo de sus viajes, saben que es lo que mas agradezco). Las agujas Square Hilokune de Logaro son vitales para mí (es mi línea de agujas profesional), algún marcador Hilokune y aparte de la lana del proyecto que me ocupe también llevo algunas bolas de lana extra junto con unas agujas cortas de muestreo para tejer cualquier idea que venga a mi mente y no olvidarla.
Para terminar hablemos de futuro ¿cómo te imaginas HILOKUNE dentro de 10 años?
No suelo pensar a tan largo plazo. Hilokune es el espacio que envuelve a Estudio Logaro, un pequeño estudio/ taller artesanal, junto a una pequeña academia y una selecta tienda de lanas. Tres actividades que se desarrollan simultáneamente bajo un mismo paraguas, nutriéndose las unas de las otras en perfecta simbiosis. Me lo imagino un poco más grande y consolidado como referente de formación, colaboración y creación textil.
HIDALGOS KNITTERS
The Luna region is part of the Biosphere Reserve Omaña and Luna valleys, León. It`s land of transhumant shepherds. They’re the ones who forged the character of these valleys, in their eternal search for green meadows for their merino sheep.
This semi-nomadic way of life, amid cañadas (drover’s roads), cordeles (tracks) and veredas (paths) moulded the landscape. The transhumant flocks walked from the the Leonese mountain passes in summer, to the pastures of Extremadura in winter, created a trail. And i’d like to invite you to hike it:
Abelgas de Luna is at the start of a small hiking trail that leads to the merino sheep track of Babia de Abajo, route of shepherds transhumants fo merino. An old sheep path that is still used by shepherds today, to drive their flock to the summer passes. The circular trail is scarcely 9-km long, and it takes about 3:30 hours. It couldn’t be simpler.
In the high part of the village is the simple hermitage of Vera Cruz, known as the Hermitage of the Shepherds, built in the seventeenth century. Of all the villages in the region, Abelgas is one of the enclaves that has best conserved its traditional shepherding buildings. There, you’ll find what are known as “de patín” houses, which have two stories. The ground floor is for the stables and storeroom, and the upper one is the living space. It’s worth, warm up by exploring the village, to identify its unusual buildings, before you set out on your hike.
The path starts in the southern part of the village and follows the course of the Arroyo de Cuartero river, which has created a limestone ravine. The bottom of this small gorge is home to the river, this trail, and allotments belonging to the locals.
At the end of the ravine, the trail continues towards Mallo de Luna, but you should come off it and take the detour to the left, which specifically goes to the Babia de Abajo cordel (track). According to the old Mesta laws, it’s 45 Castilian varas wide, which is why it’s a cordel (track) and not a cañada (drover’s road). It directly connects to the Puerto de Mesa pass.
Along the first part of the stretch, the track goes through important grasslands and a small gorge called Las Focicas. At that point, which is the highest on this route of shepherds transhumants fo merino, you can enjoy the impressive mountainous panorama of Luna. With its deep valleys and high peaks, extensive pastures and austere stone villages. If you’re lucky, you may even catch a glimpse of the powerful mastiffs guarding the livestock.
This is followed by a descent, which crosses one of the best oak woods in the region, and which will take you to Láncara hydroelectric power station. The trail ends at a nearby road, which goes to Sena de Luna. Follow that road in the opposite direction, back towards the starting point, in Abelgas de Luna.
Now you’ve walked up an appetite, there’s no better choice than to enjoy a warming caldereta del pastor (lamb stew), slow cooked in an iron pot, by expert hands, in Sena de Luna. After lunch, take a pleasant stroll through this lordly village, to immerse yourself in its history and discover the family home of Los Hidalgos, owners of the herd with the same name.
The Las Hidalgas livestock was an extremely important merino sheep herd in the first half of the 20th century, and it’s the only one that has managed to survive until today. Hidalgas sheep are very special, with an extremely fine wool that is rich in suarda (wool grease). That’s what gives merino sheep their characteristic greyish appearance.
Before heading home, you may like to drive to Rabanal de Luna and visit Pruneda hermitage. This simple rural building has a strategic position, near the main transhumant trails, and on the border between Babia and Luna. The oldest residents can still remember how the sheep would rub their fleece against the walls of the temple on their transhumant journey.
Photography: Noelia Gonzalez Gallego
Laura always knew that she was in her element with communications and fashion. From a very young age, her talent with languages was clear. This led her to study at a liceo linguistico (the Italian high schools that specialise in languages). Despite this, the language she uses to best express herself is colour.
After finishing her studies, she joined her family company: Sabotex. Working in the fabric sector, for two generations, this business has been dedicated to the world of wool. There, in her position as manager of exports and product creation and development, she is leading consolidation of the company in the international market, and positioning it among the leading brands in the sector.
Always looking for new challenges, in 2015, Laura Boldi, went on to found her own company: Boldi Filatti. It fulfils her need to reorientate the textile business towards new values and management models. Sustainability, social responsibility and respect for the environment are the cornerstones that will form the basis of her new world of knitting.
We asked you what knitting means to you and your answer told us that wool is your entire life. Thinking about the future, how do you see this world of wool and colour evolving?
We’re already seeing how, every day, new generations are recovering traditions and ways of working, artisan work that reflects their unique, individual personality in this globalised world.
The future is creation, sustainability and social conscience. Wool fits perfectly into that context and so its role is growing.
Do you believe that wool and its combinations of textures and colours are like a language? What do you think this language conveys nowadays? What would you like it to express in the near future?
A fabric, its textures and colours are the “words” of a language that conveys emotions, fantasies and feelings. It’s a language that lets you communicate with the outside world through the senses of touch and sight.
You can use this language when you’re alone, as part of an introspective journey involving relaxation, concentration and creation. And you can convey and share this journey while drinking a coffee with friends or other knitters, at clubs, workshops or in your favourite shop, interacting in a socialisation process.
As head of product development, what inspires you? What moves you when creating new yarns and seeking colours? What’s involved in the process that generates the yarn?
As product manager, I’m in continual contact with different design studios and fashion trends. But, actually, in my case, the end purpose of the yarn or colour lies in everyday life, anecdotes and details that inspire you, like discovering an unknown corner of the city, the dusk light while you’re driving home, observing people while you’re walking, journeys where you discover other cultures, a piece of music or a conversation. These experiences get updated every day and give rise to an idea, thread, pattern or colour.
Each yarn is an experience in and of itself. Producing it depends on the idea you want to convey and the technical capabilities of the machinery.
We’d like to take you back to the past. You must have a lot of stories related to wool: some tender and emotional, others that will make us laugh. We’d love to hear one.
During my life, as a knitter, I’ve been involved in numerous situations and events that have left me with good memories. Of all of them, there is one that was particularly exciting for me.
My daughter Carola, despite her family background, had never picked up a pair of knitting needles. A little while ago, on a train journey to Paris, she decided she wanted to try “that knitting thing”. Using the materials I was carrying with me, amid laughter and arguments, knitting and undoing, she managed to make a hat for her brother. Since then, she’s become a big knitting fan and now she teaches me how to do new stitches and make new things.
What’s Laura Boldi like when she knits? Is she patient or like a tornado? Is she strict about technique or a knitting anarchist? Does she prefer knitting in silence or with music playing? Size 5 or size 12 needles? Does she like crochet? Jumper or scarf? Lace stitch, rib stitch or jacquard? Just one job on the go or five still to finish? Is there something she’s made that she was particularly pleased with? Which colour or colours always grab her attention when it comes to starting a new project? Tell us!
Even though I like knitting in a relaxed place, I must acknowledge that I’m a bit of a tornado, always doing something, and with several jobs on the go. I like sunny colours that are packed with energy. That’s what I tended to use to knit things for my children when they were small. I’ve kept some of the things I knitted and, because of the emotional link, they make me feel all the more pleased.
We’d like to take you back to the past. You must have a lot of stories related to wool: some tender and emotional, others that will make us laugh. We’d love to hear one.
During my life, as a knitter, I’ve been involved in numerous situations and events that have left me with good memories. Of all of them, there is one that was particularly exciting for me.
My daughter Carola, despite her family background, had never picked up a pair of knitting needles. A little while ago, on a train journey to Paris, she decided she wanted to try “that knitting thing”. Using the materials I was carrying with me, amid laughter and arguments, knitting and undoing, she managed to make a hat for her brother. Since then, she’s become a big knitting fan and now she teaches me how to do new stitches and make new things.
What’s Laura Boldi like when she knits? Is she patient or like a tornado? Is she strict about technique or a knitting anarchist? Does she prefer knitting in silence or with music playing? Size 5 or size 12 needles? Does she like crochet? Jumper or scarf? Lace stitch, rib stitch or jacquard? Just one job on the go or five still to finish? Is there something she’s made that she was particularly pleased with? Which colour or colours always grab her attention when it comes to starting a new project? Tell us!
Even though I like knitting in a relaxed place, I must acknowledge that I’m a bit of a tornado, always doing something, and with several jobs on the go. I like sunny colours that are packed with energy. That’s what I tended to use to knit things for my children when they were small. I’ve kept some of the things I knitted and, because of the emotional link, they make me feel all the more pleased.
Tejedor hidalgo
HIDALGOS KNITTERS
LAURA BOLDI
Man Martínez was just a boy when he caught the eye of the man who would become his trainer for more than 10 years. Manolo used to go everywhere on his bike. Carlos Burón, who was training nearby with his group, asked if he’d like to give shot-putting a try. He decided he would, and that passionate child, who then dreamed of being a professional basketball player, went on to conquer Spanish athletics. He has a personal best of 21.47 m and an extraordinary list of medals: European champion, 2002, world champion, 2003, and bronze medallist in the Athens Olympic Games, 2004.
A restless man, Manolo has always wanted to get involved with people, to work to generate a collective awareness, a community. This multi-talented artist first weaved his summer dreams as a child, beside his grandmother Joaquina. She taught him to knit, using her needles like a conductor’s baton, orchestrating the free spirit and creative force inside this incredible man. Since then, his personal universe has continued to grow.
Manolo has experimented in numerous fields: painting, sculpture, photography, music and poetry. But what really moves him, and where he feels most at home, is working in audiovisual media. The world of film and acting came to him like athletics, by chance. Film director Adán Aliaga was looking for an actor with Manolo’s physique to play the starring role in his film Estigmas (“Stigmas”). After months of fruitless searching, he decided to ask Manolo directly. Despite never having worked as an actor, and after some initial doubts, he managed to climb into the skin of Bruno Marotti, the marginal character and confirmed drinker from the Italian comic. Since then, he’s worked intermittently in film and television. His latest role was in 2018, in the Spanish series Apaches, broadcast on Antena 3.
But that’s not all. To enable him to keep exploring all the different facets of the audiovisual world, he founded a small production studio in his home town of León. To date, he’s directed a documentary series, Sueños de Oro (“Golden Dreams”), and two short films, Tríptico (“Triptych”) (the name of his project), and Páramos (“Wastelands”), where, besides being the director, he’s also the scriptwriter and an actor.
Tejedor hidalgo
HIDALGOS KNITTERS
MANOLO MARTÍNEZ
To start a piece of knitting, you need a pattern to guide you. All LAS HIDALGAS kits include a booklet with the explanations you’ll need. They were developed step-by-step, and with a great deal of care, to anticipate (or at least try to anticipate) the different challenges that we know come up when you follow any knitting pattern. If you have any questions, you can get in touch with us at noelia@lashidalgas.com. We’ll be pleased to connect with you and help you.
If you don’t know how to knit, it’s essential to make sure you understand and practise a series of basic techniques, before you start on a project. You’ll need them to be able to understand the explanations in the pattern. LAS HIDALGAS has summarised the basics of knitting in a downloadable e-book. You can easily print it out at home, so you’ll always have it to hand, and be able to consult it when you need to.
Find the flock of little Spanish merino sheep in our KITS section, follow them and discover.
Aprende a tejer
Basic-techniques
download
When you think about knitting by hand, using two knitting needles, the first image that comes to mind is an endearing little old lady, knitting in a comfortable armchair, with a basket of yarn at her feet. Fortunately, we’ve discovered that wool, like the moon, has two sides.
Wool is essentially a fine material, and this is never more true than when we’re talking about Spanish transhumant merino wool. If, besides this, it’s been produced using artisan processes, it conserves a traditional facet that can’t and shouldn’t be ignored.
Hand knitting is enjoying its finest moment. It’s shattering clichés, with colour and new textures. It embraces novelty, while reconciling the past and present, history and fashion.
One look at these photos dispels that lingering sense of nostalgia. They show how the world of knitting is reinventing itself and annihilating its own limits. It’s pushing every boundary, to include those who thought there was nothing new to hear.
For a conventional knitter, this may be the most exciting fashion editorial you’ve ever read. Perhaps here, in this destruction of stereotypes, is where the brutal beauty of knitting resides.
PHOTOGRAPHY : JULIA D VELÁZQUEZ
All LAS HIDALGAS garments, whether you buy them as a kit or hand-knitted by our knitters in their workshops, are inspired by the magical and natural world that accompanies transhumance.
Places, objects, uses, customs, natural phenomena . . . We want to show you all the enchantment of this popular wisdom and culture associated with 800 years of tradition. Considering that an image is worth more than a thousand words, what better solution than to ask Laura to represent each word and expression with one of her drawings?
Laura G. Bécares has a degree in fine art, from the University of the Basque Country, and a diploma in art therapy from Metáfora College, Barcelona. Her primary line of work is producing editorial illustrations for children and young people. Besides this, she gives art workshops for children, where she investigates creative possibilities among little ones. Laura is also an art mediator in social-educational intervention projects, where she works with different groups in risk of social exclusion.
Laura’s illustrations are based on simple strokes, and firm, sinuous lines that clearly define shapes, but that leave it to the imagination to produce a more detailed description. Figurative elements are juxtaposed with abstract ones. The two are united through her free and vivacious use of colour. With a tendency towards bareness, her work takes the onlooker to a place where emotions and sensations become more direct and intense.
The drawings she has created based on the different transhumant sources of inspiration suggested by LAS HIDALGAS have given rise to a wonderful collection of watercolours, replete with sensitivity, freshness and natural simplicity. A breath of rural air that lets us re-live the transhumant past.
Colaboradores