South American Yarn and Buenos Aires Yarn District

Just came back from a South American vacation, which included the usual search for local yarn!  We visited Santiago and Puerto Varas in Chile, Montevideo in Uruguay, Bariloche and Buenos Aires in Argentina.  More  in my travel blog (January 2013) for South American Trip.

I knew in advance some of the brands that we get here.  In fact, from Uruguay, I pre-knit my souvenir sweater with Manos Del Uruguay silk-blend yarn.







But first stop was Santiago Chile.  I struggled to find any yarn there, and came up empty. My big stop was going to be the store that featured Araucania yarns.  In the big city of 7 million people, there are yan shops scattered.  But they had hours that did not match my schedule, and the ones that I did find had a very, very, very small selection of just a few yarns.  Plus, the prices were not so great.

I did get in touch with a Santiago knitters group on Ravelry, and one gal was very kind to offer advice. She let me know that the store which was known for Araucania yarns, closed just a month ago! That's so sad.

Glad I had my pre-trip Souvenir Sweater 2012 Ender Pender Vest already knit in Araucania Nuble.  In fact, I wore it on this trip, it was really perfect as a lightweight layering piece over my tees, even in the warmer weather!

Next stop was Puerto Varas, Chile. What a wonderful little town!  It was cold, windy, rainy, most of our short time there, so we missed the wonderful views across the lake at rising volcanic peaks with snow caps.

Wandering the town, I found a Fabulous Yarn Shop, and grabbed a little Chilean yarn.  So I will have a post-trip souvenir from there!

Next yarn shopping is in Montevideo, Uruguay. As mentioned earlier, I thought it would be a highlight of the trip, to go to one of the three Manos Del Uruguay stores!  But sadly, the store had mostly finished crafts of non-yarn media.  And a loft with some wool yarn, but nothing I would knit with.  The little bit of english spoken, they said it was summer, and more yarn is available in the winter.  Also, this store is listed as an "outlet", so maybe one of the other 2 stores might have had what I'd like. But limited time.









Manos Del Uruguay outlet loft "wall"



DH is kindly walking the Yarn District with me

Final yarn shopping of the trip is in Buenos Aires.  And they have a Yarn District! 

It is along Av. Scalabrini Ortiz, starting on Av. Cordoba and extending toward Av. Corrientes, most of the shops are pretty close together within 4-5 blocks, both sides of the street!
We take a taxi, and I am thrilled with the windows and little shops full of yarn. But it is confusing. The yarns are generally unlabeled, they are bundled in bins with headings that mean something to locals, but not much to me! Fiber content may or may not be listed, nothing about gauge, needles, yardage. Just price per kilo.

I just wander the shops and finger the yarns, not sure what I want. No one speaks English to answer questions. But I know algodon is cotton, seda is silk*, and lana is wool.  At Hilados Reina, I settle on a nice multicolor dyed cotton for 44 pesos, calculated as .45 kilos at 98 peso per kilo. It looks like a lot of yarn for a short-sleeved sweater, about $9.

Now we are running short on pesos, so I look for a shop that accepts credit cards. At Yanabey, hard to select from that gorgeous wall of color, but go with a 50/50 cotton/silk, 1.42 kilos at 195 pesos, $56. Enough for 3 sweaters.

*Postscript here...since returning home I found someone online who works in the Buenos Aires yarn district who answered some questions.  While seda is spanish for silk, they are actually referred to rayon "artificial silk". No silk is made in Argentina, so they are loose on labels because they all "know this". Kind of weird to me, as the spanish word for rayon...is rayon (so why not use it??) But the good news, the unlabeled yarns are made in Argentina for that store, so I have some unique yarns!