Sunday 30 January 2011

Wool

An unexpected delight here in Chile is wool. As a self-confessed knitting addict, I'm sadly a little unusual in the UK. Spending my free time listening to the click of the needles is not something most 28 year olds choose to do.

But here, it's a whole other story. I first had an inkling that my hobby might be a little more conventional when Carlos told me of a conversation he'd overheard between two of his work colleagues, not long after he'd arrived, about the current knitting projects they had on the go. Even more surprisingly, he caught one of the secretaries grabbing a sneaky couple of rows during a quiet moment at the office.

When the Metro is not packed to the rafters, it's not uncommon to see women whip out their knitting. The idea of donning a ball of wool in public may seem a little cringe-worthy in the UK, but here no-one bats an eyelid.

The best thing by far though, is wool shops. And I mean proper little wool shops of the kind I used to see as a child in the 80s, that regrettably, almost completely died out. Gorgeous shelves full of brightly-coloured, inexpensive yarns and stocked with all the accoutrements you could need; needles, magazines, patterns and all. They are everywhere: metro stations, big American-style malls, little shopping areas, side streets and main thoroughfares. It really is a dangerous city to live in...

Photo by Nagamori (cc)
Footnote for the yarn connoisseur: Knowing that some of my readers are as crafty as I am, I felt I must mention the local yarn here which many of you may be familiar with: Araucania yarns. Araucania yarns are a collective of artisans based in Santiago that hand-dye exquisite alpaca, angora and Patagonian wool, among other fibres. They produce some seriously beautiful variegated yarns.

Last Monday, I had the joy of seeing the yarns close-up when some of the knitting groups girls and I treated ourselves to a trip to Cuenta Puntos, a local stockist of Araucania. It's a shop that was rather deliciously described by one of the girls as 'yarn porn' - need I say any more?
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2 comments:

  1. Margaret31 January 2011 at 07:55

    So nice to see a new generation of knitting enthusiasts coming to Chile! I learned to knit here (because I had no one in my US family to teach me), and as you said, everything one could ever dream of for creating beautiful handmade works is close at hand here.
    You may be surprised to learn that many of the older women have never used a pattern in their lives. They learn new stitches by studying what others have done and take measurements by hold their work--dangling from their needles--against the intended recipient's backs or arms!

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  2. Jayne Scarman1 February 2011 at 09:23

    Thanks Margaret. Now that's a technique I wish I was skilled enough to adopt!

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