Abel weaver Magdalena Gamayo, often known as "Lola Magdalena," was born on August 13, 1924 in a tiny village in Brgy. Ilocos Norte's Pinili. Her aunt introduces her to the world of traditional weaving when she is 16 years old, at the height of the Second World War. Her unrivaled mastery of inabel weaving was acknowledged in 2012 when she received the GAMABA, or National Living Treasures Award. What is Inabel? The inabel is one of the numerous glories of the Philippines' Ilocos region. The Ilocano term for weave is "abel," thus "inabel" can refer to any type of woven cloth. However, in the realm of weaving, inabel is specifically used to refer to textiles of an Ilocano provenance. The abel cloth is well known and much loved for its softness, beautiful designs, and strength. The traditional process of Ilocos weaving begins with picking cotton balls and turning it into yarns. The dyed yarns are then prepared in a wooden handloom and hardwood pedal looms to produce unique designs and patterns. Now that the loom is “dressed,” the Ilocano weaver can start weaving. Each cotton thread is carefully counted and intricately arranged according to color before being wrapped into the loom to set up the inabel pattern. MASTERY Since then, Magdalena has perfected her skills on her own, teaching herself traditional inabel patterns such as binakol (whirlwinds, her specialty), inuritan (geometric patterns), sinan-sabong (flowers), and kusikos (spiral forms).