Orkney Yarn Safari

Knitting in Lithuania

Knitting and felting are everywhere in Vilnius. The craft market was filled with hand-knitted socks, caps and mitts.



Felting is also very popular. On a side street in the Old Town we discovered a textile artists' cooperative called Aukso Avis, which means 'golden sheep.' I loved the logo and the over-sized stuffed sheep hanging on either side of the door. (It brought to mind the expression, 'Might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb.')

The yarn shop Geros Akys used to be located in the Old Town but recently moved to sun-filled quarters on the fifth floor of the VCUP mall on the other side of the river. It's worth the walk to find the mecca of yarn and felting supplies. I bought so many different colours of roving that the sales assistant asked me if I'd be interested in a needle-felting workshop (how did she know that I really don't know what I'm doing but got carried away by the spirit of creativity in the city?).

Casa Lana is a full service yarn shop located in the old town. It has a great selection of Online yarns and pattern books (some in English).

On our day trip to Kaunas we discovered another yarn shop on the main pedestrian street. I could not figure out what it was called.

The baked goods taste even better than they look and we ate a lot of cake in Vilnius. At one of our favorite bakeries we spotted this hilarious Easter cake:

A really silly Easter cake!

While taking an evening stroll we spotted knitted dolls in the window of a small shop tucked away on a side street in the old town. Siltos Spalvos, which means 'warm colours,' sells exquisitely handknit toys and children's clothes. The pair below reminded me of Ernie and Bert.

Another clever logo.

High Viz Man Sweater

At last off the needles, a wide ribbed sweater for G. knitted in brilliant orange Harris tweed wool, which I found on our trip to Skye last summer. The pattern is Mac from RYC Tweed (Book 21) and I used 4.5 mm needles. It was my television-watching knitting project for many months. I had my doubts about the colour but there's no doubt it suits G. (and he loves it). My favorite part about it: the bone buttons from Argentina!

Woolfish Woolfest

The first Saturday in March several Aberdeen SnB members set out on a yarn safari to check out the St. Abb's Wool Festival, a small fibre festival organized by the local yarn shop, the Woolfish. The festival took place in the village community centre, which was decorated on the outside with giant knitting needles. On hand to greet us were baby Angora goats and alpacas. There were about half a dozen vendors and of course the Woolfish (a destination in itself) to check out -- the yarn shop is in an old blacksmith's shop so some of the wool is displayed in the old forge. I was tempted by the latest Noro pattern book, Noro Flowers, which features designs in the new Noro cotton-blend yarns -- unfortunately not yet available in the UK.

I brought home a book of sock patterns from the Yarn Yard, two skeins of sock wool from the Border Tart (I love that name!) and a peg loom from the Woolfish because I rationalized it would be an excellent way to use up odds and ends in my stash -- not that I have begun to use it yet. Right now it's doing a fine job decorating my dining room table. Several of my companions brought home alpaca yarn after meeting the fiber sources themselves outside!

Patagonian Yarn

Despite three trips to Buenos Aires' yarn mecca, I couldn't resist visiting Lanas de Patagonia, a tiny shop tucked on Avenida Pasteur in the Once neighborhood and I'm glad I did. As you might guess, the shop sells wool and cotton produced and dyed in Patagonia as well as beautiful wooden buttons and shawl pins and honey, also produced in Patagonia.

I left with enough aran weight yarn in a bright green (the photo on the right does not do it justice) to knit a sweater for G. and more buttons for the fastest growing button collection.

For anyone who would like to brush up on their yarn shopping Spanish, Issue No. 10 of Yarn Forward magazine has a great article on yarn shops in Madrid along with a list of useful phrases in Spanish.

Temptation lurked around every corner. Here's a display of vintage buttons at one of the stalls at the San Telmo antique/flea market, which takes place every Sunday in Plaza Dorrego.

Yarn Heaven in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is quite possibly my favorite city in the world, so I wasn't looking for another reason to go. Nevertheless, I found one: a collection of really great yarn shops conveniently lined up one after another on the same street. Although an extremely reliable source told me about the neighborhood, I didn't believe I was in the right place when I found myself on a very busy but otherwise ordinary street passing drug stores, grocery stores, and a giant garden center (which I would have been extremely interested in stopping at if only it were possible to take plants home on the plane). And then I saw the first yarn shop: Milana -- and two more across the road. And those were just the ones on the first block. Now maybe I've been living in Scotland for too long, but these stores are big. I'm talking big enough, in some cases, to display more than one full-sized floor loom in the window. My favorite window display complete with giant needles is pictured on the left. Imagine my frenzied excitement: where to start, what to get.... In the end, it took me three visits to come to terms with the richness of Buenos Aires yarn district and I'm still thinking of yarn I should have brought home with me had I been thinking straight.




Milana, which doesn't have a web site is where I found Manos del Uruguay Classico prominently displayed in the front window. On the other side of the street from Milana is a very clever shop selling handmade wood buttons, shawl pins, and bag handles.

Possibly the three best known shops are Nube, Moussa and Yanbey (all on the same block and side of the street). Although it's definitely hard to choose, my favorite turned out to be Yanabey. The yarn is displayed in floor-to-ceiling shelves (and it's okay to touch and help yourself to the skeins you want). On the bottom shelf, right at your feet, you'll find a helpful label telling you the yarn content(even the acrylic looks good), the recommended needle size (in mm), and the price per kilo (each skein weighs approximately 200 grams). Yardage is not provided, but the prices are so competitive I just bought an extra skein or two whenever I was in doubt. Yanabey's kettle-dyed pure wool in both chunky and aran weights is comparable to Manos in everything but price as far as I'm concerned.

The yarn sold in all of the shops is made from raw materials grown in Argentina. Wool and cotton are the most common and if you look carefully you'll find llama wool. I did find mohair, cotton/silk blends and some pure silk. "Seta vegetal" or "vegetable silk" made from plant fibre is more common than silk. Alpaca is not widely available and is most likely to be blended with acrylic. Needles and notions are very basic. Weaving equipment is everywhere. Dotted between the yarn shops are a couple of well stocked mercerias, haberdashery shops that sell sewing threads, ribbons, zippers lace, buttons and much more -- just the places to find the finishing touches for your knitting.

At Hilarte, I found "artesanal packs" of yarn available in either cotton or wool combinations to inspire the artist within. I couldn't resist and bought a cleverly selected pack of pink and brown tones home with me. I hope it will turn into a funky crocheted purse. Below you can see some of the yarn I managed to stuff into my suitcase. I bought plenty of pure wool in bright colors for felting projects, some aran weight wool for a Debbie Bliss cardigan (have you guessed I like knitting with wool that feels like wool), lots of hand-dyed 4-ply cotton to play around with crochet projects, and enough hand-dyed purple DK-weight cotton to make the cropped bolero (pictured above in the photo on the left) I spotted in the Nube window, which allowed me to meet the in-house designer Claudia Pellegrini, who kindly provided me with the pattern along with some handy translations for Spanish knitting terms.


Ever since I came home, I can't stop thinking about weaving, maybe because of all the looms in the display windows. I'll never fit one in the house, but maybe I could start experimenting with a peg loom.

For those planning a trip, Buenos Aires' yarn mecca can be found at Calle Scalabrini Ortiz and Lerma (and yes, there is a bank machine, plus Yanabey and a couple of other shops accept credit cards). It's about a five-block walk from Palermo Viejo -- a trendy neighborhood with independent shops and cafes (the perfect place to leave anyone in your party who is not a yarn fanatic). There are plenty of cafes in Scalabrini Ortiz because, trust me, you will need to sit down and drink something cold or caffeinated at least once during your visit to cope with your excitement between visits to different shops. If you were planning a trip to Buenos Aires just to yarn shop, ,the best place to stay would be Malabia House. Shop for yarn, swim, eat beef, drink red wine, knit by the pool, shop for yarn and drink more wine: my idea of heaven.

Knitting for a Good Cause

In October the Baaad Girls, Wool for Ewe's Thursday night knitting group, decided to mark National Knitting Week by knitting Alan Dart's Advent Christmas tree (the pattern was published in a fall issue of Simply Knitting) with yarn donated by Wool for Ewe. The project came together surprising quickly through the group's efforts and we all admired Alan's creativity and attention to the smallest detail. Jacqueline was a star when it came to stuffing the ornaments and bringing the animals and elves to life by embroidering their faces on just right. (The only change we made to the pattern was substituting a much wider, short terracotta flower pot for the base rather than the 4" onoe called for.) The tree was raffled to support CLAN (Cancer Link Aberdeen and North) and the group raised more than £53o.