gifts for all ages

Knit from 100% baby alpaca wool to feature pretty wave patterns, this Peruvian ear warmer is designed by Alfredo Falcon. He dyes the fibers a solid crimson hue. Baby alpaca refers to the fine fleece from the season's first shearing.

Knit from 100% baby alpaca wool to feature pretty wave patterns, this Peruvian headband ear warmer is designed by Alfredo Falcon. He dyes the fibers a solid black hue. Baby alpaca refers to the fine fleece from the season's first shearing.

Peruvian artisan Idelsa Guevara shows her superb knitting skills with this lovely design made entirely from soft alpaca yarns. With a solid orange tone, this hat is the ideal accessory for those cold days, featuring a charming cable knit pattern at the bottom that makes it unique.

Enjoy your winter adventure with a flexible and cozy accessory directly from the Andes region. Capturing the stunning nature of these landscapes, Peruvian artisan Liceth Príncipe knits these acrylic and alpaca blend convertible gloves, whose main cover features a traditional pattern in a sweet palette of beige and azalea hues. But if the journey requires more of a handy accessory, the cover can also be flipped down and secured with a button, transforming the design into fingerless mitts.

Thick yarns add rich texture to this fascinating kente cloth shawl by Gobah Tengey-Seddoh. Strips of black, white and Delft blue make a dramatic and handsome color combination. Designed and woven of coarse local cotton in the 12th century, the lokpo pattern means "heavy or thick in texture."

Each strip requires considerable effort, and the looms are worked with both hands and feet. Strips are generally three to four inches wide and seven to ten feet long, and the length of time it takes to complete one strip varies by the complexity of the chosen pattern. The simplest use mostly vertical, or warp patterns, and an experienced weaver can make several of those in one day. However patterns with nearly all weft (horizontal thread) patterns where the warp design is hardly visible can take up to four days to complete an individual strip. Each color has its own meanings in Asante culture. Green is fertility and new harvest, gold is royalty, black is strength, aging and spirituality, while white is purity. The patterns themselves are carefully chosen symbols, which a master weaver develops and names, often to honor people, historical events, or proverbs.