How yarn travels...

Some of the items are done by women who are from the village of Puka (4 1/2 hours from Tirana) and they are snowed in all the time. Here is the story of the yarn for some of hats and slippers... "I purchase the yarn and give it to Luli. The next day she takes 2 buses and walks to the center of Tirana to give the yarn to the bus driver who goes to Puka. He drives to Puka departing at 11:30am arriving at 4:00pm and at 1:30pm Luli's sister in law begins walking down the mountain to meet the driver by 4:00pm. It takes 3 hours to walk down and even longer going back up. Then they start knitting and send everything back to Tirana the same way." from Mary

What this is all about...

We know that these are harsh economic times here in the states, but if we look beyond where we are we can always see that there are people that are worse off then we are. Albania is a place that is stricken with poverty. There is a need for more and no way of getting it. Our dear friend Mary lives in Albanian with her family. It is Mary's goal to try to teach the women in her community the value of entrepreneurship. She wants to show these women that there is another way because as we all know handouts are not always the answer. She is trying to teach them to use their natural abilities to make and sell things to earn a living for their families. There are many families that cannot afford the staples such as eggs and flour. They do not even have the luxury of buying milk! We live in an age where specialty coffees cost $4 a cup. In Albania $4 can buy 2 pounds of flour, 2 pounds of rice, 1 loaf of bread, and 8 eggs.

Below you can see a sampling of the hand made traditional Albanian items for sale. There are hats, scarves, small ipod cases and cell phone purses, slippers, and much more. We currently have around 100 items in our inventory.

Please go to http://picasaweb.google.com/traditionalalbaniandesign to see pictures of all the items as well as prices. If you cannot find something that suites your style you can email a pictures of what you would like and we'll see if it can be done. We would also be happy to accept monetary donations or donations of material or yarn. All proceeds go directly to the women in the community. Please email your orders to traditionalalbaniandesign@gmail.com. Also if you would like to send a thank you or a message of encouragement to the ladies or to Mary please feel free to send them to the above email address.

From the bottom of our hearts we thank you for taking the time to check out this site. Continue to check back for updates on the project as well as more personal stories from the women who are making the items.