I have to admit I’m pretty darned tired at this point. But I’ll share tidbits of today’s adventures and get to sleep. We have a couple days at sea ahead of us, so I’ll mostly have knitting content to share then! Today, though, we stepped ashore in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Travel Tales
I’ll admit I knew very little about this country before we started our tour. I remember learning the names of the countries of South America and their capitals when I studied Spanish in high school (over forty years ago, gulp), but a bunch of them I glossed over. Uruguay was a Spanish colony (no surprise) and was populated by immigrants after they chased away the natives. But immigrants from other countries settled here as well. As with other Spanish colonies, they eventually declared their independence and signed a constitution to establish their own government.
The first stop on our tour was to Independencia Plaza to see the statue of Artigas, setting atop a mausoleum that contains his ashes, as well as a few other significant structures.
Bottom: left – Palacio Salvo is the tallest building in the city; middle – Gateway of the Citadel is one of the few remaining parts of the wall that surrounded the oldest part of the city; right – Palacio Legislativo was inaugurated 100 years after the country’s independence, and this year is is celebrated its centennial!
After the central city tour, we made our way to a significant site for our group: the outlet store of Manos del Uruguay, a yarn manufacturer most of us were already familiar with. But we also discovered they have other product lines including clothing, accessories and miscellaneous handcrafted items. In addition to the outlet store, our group got to visit their corporate headquarters! I had no idea of this company’s history and their mission to support local artisans without seeking profits. They have various cooperatives in the country, all acting as independent artists. We were introduced to some of their staff and got to walk around a number of areas of their facility. Truly fascinating!
I may have a chance to share more about that organization later in my trip. At the outlet I purchased a number of goodies – the outlet has a whole section of yarn that has been discontinued and returned to them from their stores. It’s sold at a significant discount! And I purchased a sweater quantity of yarn to knit one of Laura’s designs that was created in this yarn (Serena base) – I’ll be test knitting the pattern, so I may not be able to share progress photos. I’ll ask tomorrow!
Our last stop before returning to the old town near the port was to this statue.
The group ate lunch together at the market – Cabaña Veronica hosted our entire group, and this lunch was included as part of our trip package. Yummy! Side note – the meal included both sausage and steak, as Uruguay is well known for its beef quality. Thankfully that dispensation still applies, as we’re supposed to abstain from eating meat on Fridays!
By this time, nearly 2pm, it was incredibly hot (90 degrees Fahrenheit) so I made my way back to the ship to take a nap and shower before dinner. We shoved off from the pier as I was eating dinner, and before long the sun was setting over the water.
Cast-on Conversations
And as promised, I got a good photo of the cowl yarn selections from Huanaco Yarns – Merino de la Patagonia Single, fingering weight yarns in naturally dyed violet and gray.
This took me much longer than intended, so I’ll close here. I should have more energy to share more tomorrow.
Knit on. 🧶
Kninja Knitter 
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