David Nelson, American Ambassador with us!

 

He arrived with a delegation and take a walk around our facilities and the PTI (Technologic Industrial Park) where we are located.

Visits from Israel

[caption id="attachment_850" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Stav, Bat and Rebeca"][/caption]

Mother and daughters meet in Uruguay and stop by malabrigo

49 in a day!!

[gallery orderby="ID"]

We are honored to have received 49 visitors  at the mill from the Great Balls of Yarn store -- Robin from Great  Balls of Yarn organized this amazing trip. They visited the mill, took "some" wool and even dyed their own skeins.

It was an incredible experience. Thanks for being here! Well-known knitter Nicky Epstein was among our visitors;  as you can see, she visited our "swimming wool". We had a wonderful time dyeing and sharing with you all!

More pictures at the Malabrigo  Yarns Facebook page!

From Imagiknit

Allison from Imagiknit was here again.

She visited our facility and she was looking at our test for new yarns and colors.

Malabrigo for Kids!

Munecos, a brand-new Etsy shop, is open for business! The three-woman Uruguayan team, headed up by Monica Bacardaz, has set up an Etsy store to sell their high-quality stuffed animals. Each animal is made from Malabrigo yarns and stuffed with Corriedale, making them 100% natural wool materials. The animals are made in pieces using crochet, knitting, embroidery and sewing techniques, and assembled by hand too! Here's a picture of Monica working at home:



If you have a friend or know someone who really appreciates stuffed animals, you should certainly check out Munecos!

Chau, Hannah

Sustainable Hot Water

At the factory, we're doing our best to decrease our environmental footprint! Our most recent addition to the mill? A flat-plate thermal heating system has been installed at the mill. Using the power of the sun, we can heat our water tanks for the various processes to make your favorite yarns. The panels are being installed on the roof of the mill, as shown below.

[caption id="attachment_583" align="aligncenter" width="426" caption="Thermal plate installation on the roof of our building!"][/caption]

Uruguay Knit in Public + Malabrigo, Making a Difference

[caption id="attachment_541" align="alignleft" width="252" caption="IKiP Donations"][/caption]

Awhile back, we had a post about Uruguay's International Knit in Public Day, a great event for knitters to show off their skills are raise awareness about knitting to the general public. While many knitters all over the globe get together on IKiP to knit, chat, and just be friendly, the knitters in Uruguay like to knit with a purpose. Together, they managed to knit 900 garments for the orphanages in Uruguay! Many of these garments were out of Malabrigo, which was donated both for knitting with at the IKiP event, and as prizes for participants.

[caption id="attachment_542" align="alignleft" width="251" caption="Children Recieving Donations"][/caption]

The end result was fantastic -- these 900 garments went to suit the needs of charities Guillermina and Nuevo Amancer, to be worn by children who truly need them. Yet again, another example of wool keeping not only our bodies, but our hearts warm.

We can only hope that IKiP will be just as successful next year as last year -- and hopefully it won't have to be moved inside because of rain again!

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week - Giveaway Winner!

Goodbye, Los Manantiales -- it was good to explore your grassy pastures, stone steps and walkways, and fruit trees! We had a wonderful time!

[caption id="attachment_533" align="aligncenter" width="456" caption="photo by Ignacio Abella"][/caption]

And now, the two great rams will choose the giveaway winner! The winner will receive, by mail:

1 skein of Silky Merino in Celeste

1 skein of Silky Merino in Helechos

2 skeins of Silky Merino in Tatami

1 skein of Worsted Merino in Natural

2 skeins of Rios in Coco

1 skein of Gruesa in Natural (Gruesa is Corriedale! We felt we needed to represent the other sheep here in Uruguay a little, too!)

Congratulations to Glockeroo for winning this great prize! Thank you for your sweet comments, everyone -- it has been a great Sheep Week! Glockeroo, we'll contact you for your mailing address.

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week - The Rumble of Hooves

This herd is the largest breeding herd of ewes (3,200) in all of Uruguay. Many farms may have a few more ewes, but these ewes are all breeding stock. A few of them even have lambs, and it was a real treat to see the gauchos round them up so we could see them in a group.

[caption id="attachment_526" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="photo by Hannah Thiessen"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_527" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="photo by Hannah Thiessen"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_530" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="photo by Hannah Thiessen"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_529" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="photo by Hannah Thiessen"][/caption]

Stay tuned. Tomorrow is the last day of Sheep Week and the winner (and prize) of the Sheep Week giveaway will be announced!

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week Color Feature - Paysandu

photo by Hannah Thiessen

Feeling inspired? Try Malabrigo in these colorways!

Sock in Natural, Chunky in Pearl, Silky in Tatami, Rasta in Natural, Silky in Helechos, Rios in Coco, Twist in Zinc, Worsted in Jewel Blue

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week - Fun Factoids

[caption id="attachment_511" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="photo by Hannah Thiessen"][/caption]

They tell you not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but does the same go for a Malabrigo sheep? No way! You can tell how old a sheep is by looking at how many teeth have grown in on the front of the bottom jaw. The sheep to the left is a very young sheep - only one year old. When lambs are born, they have a small set of milk teeth and an upper dental pad.

Sheep are marked with a plastic earring that is put in very carefully - the sheep's ears are extremely delicate and the farmers are very concerned about risking pain or infection. Every sheep is pierced with great care. Some farmers even make sure that their sheep can be identified if their tag comes off by tattooing the inside of the ear with the same number.  All the numbers are often entered into a computerized data system with information on the micron count, age, and health of each sheep.

[caption id="attachment_512" align="aligncenter" width="262" caption="photo by Hannah Thiessen"][/caption]

Contrary to what you may think, sheep aren't only judged on micron or luminosity (the whiteness of the fleece), but also their general health and structure. If a sheep has a lopsided gait or his legs are too short, even with a perfect fleece, he will score lower in competitions than a sheep that has a good build.

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week - Wool Marking

[caption id="attachment_505" align="aligncenter" width="332" caption="photo by Hannah Thiessen"][/caption]

The sheep we use for Malabrigo are only the finest merino sheep in Uruguay. This means that the farms have to meet our high standards too, especially in areas like animal treatment, cleanliness, and herd management. SUL, which monitors regulations of wool breeding and herd management, keeps very high quality standards as well. For instance, the Uruguayan wool farmers are not allowed to use mulesing methods to deal with flystrike -- instead, they are trying to breed out the excess folds, and keep their herds small enough to deal with infection and disease.

The herd I visited is located in Paysandu, which is one of the Uruguyan states that contains the most wool farming. The ground there is rocky, which makes it perfect for sheep, who are best left to nibble at what grows up through the rocky ground. If they have too much food, the micron and fineness of the wool is compromised -- too little, and the sheep are unhealthy and produce brittle fleeces and fibers. The balance between the two is crucial, and herders pay attention.

[caption id="attachment_506" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="photo by Hannah Thiessen"][/caption]

When shearing season comes around, the herds are marked for quality. Sheep marked with one blue dot (the paint is a chalky substance which washes out when the fleece is cleaned) are fine -- those marked with two blue dots are the superfine sheep that win competitions. The finest wool at this farm is some of the finest in all of Uruguay. Malabrigo purchases  the wool that this farm produces, so you are, for sure, going to be knitting with wool from these sheep!

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week Kickoff!

[caption id="attachment_500" align="aligncenter" width="452" caption="photo by Hannah Thiessen"][/caption]

What are these sheep doing? Oh! They're competing to be on SHEEP WEEK!

After going on a really enlightening trip to one of our biggest suppliers of merino in Paysandu, we thought it would be really fun to give you guys a knitter's version of 'Shark Week'! This week will be Sheep Week on the blog, culminating in a giveaway at the end! Updates every day -- stay tuned to learn everything you can about the Malabrigo Sheep and the process of selection for your favorite wool!

Chau, Hannah

Go Uruguay GO!!

If you've been watching the Soccer World Cup, you know that Uruguay has just made it to the top 16! Understandably, we're excited!

Eliana, Jenny, Esther, Tati, Susana and Zulma from Malabrigo Team made a flag with wool here at the factory to display our patriotic pride. Go Uruguay!

Uruguayan President José "Pepe" Mujica with us.

The president came to the PTI (Industrial Technologic Park ) where our mill is located, to see the building. Because there are many, many companies here that specialize in various types of technological and business production, the building has been selected as an ideal site for a new school of technology, where people can come and learn about various business practices and see first-hand how several around them are run.

No worries - Malabrigo isn't moving, we're just getting new neighbors!



Pictured are workers Vane and Toño from Malabrigo team with the President in the center. We like to think that he thought the yarn was very soft and beautiful, too!

International Knit in Public Day - Uruguay

Knitters Knitting, Talking, Dancing....

Event Poster

It was a rainy, rainy, day for this year's IKiP day here in Uruguay, but luckily the group of knitters who had gathered outdoors in the plaza found dry, warm solstice in one of the local businesses. They were served cups of hot soup, hot cocoa, and given sugared croissants as they spent their time knitting garments not for themselves, but for children in Uruguay who might otherwise not have wooly, warm, goodness.

This is a project that we at Malabrigo try to support every year -- this year we sent bags of our Aquarella yarn to become quick scarves, hats, sweaters and ponchos, and it was so fun to see what everyone made with them. Participating knitters had the chance to win Malabrigo yarn prizes depending on what they had in their knitting bags, how long or how many knits they made during the day, or if their name came up in the random drawings! It was a fun day for all, I think -- and the host was remarkably enthusiastic, which always helps.

Afterwards, one of the hosts made sure to show us all the boxes filled with knits -- there were so many already on the table, it was surprising to see nearly four more boxes that were filled with knitted charity items. It's good to know that this winter, so many people will be warm just because of knitting!

Boxes of finished knits - Aquarella on top!

Chau, Hannah

Our Intern Has Arrived!

Hannah (Hannahbelle on Ravelry) has arrived at our Malabrigo Mill! She will be working with us for two months this winter. Hannah is helping with product development, color development and new ideas while she learns how we make the yarns. She is a knitting and fashion designer and color theorist, and knows very little spanish!

History

As I didn't find what I was looking for in hand-dyed yarn, I decided to try and dye it myself.

I started it in this pot in my kitchen.  My wife,  Carla,  said to me "the soup will be blue". This was in 2004.

Cumparsita

Working in a new color.

We needed a rouge red and dark grey so we decided  took inspiration on Tango music, because is a tipical color used by the Tango dancer, here in the Rio de la Plata. We named Cumparsita as the most popular song written by Matos Rodriguez an Uruguayan musician.

At the picture, you have some differents test colors.

If you will knit it, may be you can do it, to the sound of La Cumparsita.



You can listen the music here on Wikipedia

about the color's name.

Many people ask about the names of the colors




Charrua (#259)



The Charruas were native americans located in the area that today is Uruguay.This yarn coloring is inspired on the colors used during their female coming of age act. They painted their dark faces with sky-blue tints