Yarn Market

We went to the yarn market today. I had been to a good one in Shenyang and had been trying to go to one in Harbin forever. Finally I had good directions!!! The material market in Harbin was sooo awesome, I thought up here in freezing Harbin, the yarn market would be the best.

Do you know the button man

I was a bit disappointed. The one in Shenyang is has much better lighting and the vendors are really friendly.
Harbin's yarn market is bigger but sells many more sweaters and things. But they are very bland sweaters, not hip cool stuff. It occupies 2 floors. The fifth floor is cheaper.

Handmade hats for sale

In Shenyang we bargained for everything, but this place had bargaining for sweaters, but the yarn was all set prices by spool or by weight. They didn't let us take pictures of all the woman knitting. It was really cool, because now I've seen "handmade in China". They looked like they were having an ok time, I just wished they had better lighting. They could really knit and crochet quickly. There were some shops that measure you and then handmake a sweater for you.
Princess did not enjoy the yarn market because it was full of little old ladies who pinched her cheeks every time we paused to look.

Oh, The yarn

But I noticed that they pinched the Chinese kids cheeks too. Those kids looked just as unhappy as Princess. The yarn place is a chic thing, so Little Guy stayed home with his Dad.
I liked the Shenyang market better, but I still came home with lots of yarn.

Yarn, some real wool, some cool unknown varieties

Real wool and lots of it!!!

We got Little Guy a pair of knitted overalls. In my mind prior to living in China, I pictured all the little kids wearing silk padded outfits with dragons on them. Well, that isn't what they really wear here. They do wear the padded pants (me too, it's freezing), but the most "chinese" thing that I have seen kids uniformly wear are these knitted outfits.

The real Chinese outfit

Little Guy was so happy when we put his pair on him.
Immediately, the second we got home, both children tore into the bags of yarn.

Finger Knitting

Maybe they are part cat or something. They had fun with the spools and then they wanted me to roll the yarn into balls. They think it is very funny to sit in the middle of a skein and have the other one run around them and make the ball. To be 5...

Just as you imagined, we tie up Little Guy a force him to work

Harbin, China