Hand-knitted tuques made from thick wool have caught on this winter.
Hand-knitted winter caps using super-chunky wool, thick enough to be compared with the thickness of a finger, have really caught on this winter.
Many people, especially young women and children, can be regularly spotted on the streets wearing these hand-knitted tuques, far bigger than their heads, to stave off the biting winter cold.
A group of young women huddle together, knitting their individual ski caps, at the Rose wool shop in the Dongdaemun Shopping Complex, Seoul.
Super-chunky wool is markedly different from its counterparts when it comes to thickness, as can be seen in the above image.
The Dongdaemun Shopping Complex in Dongdaemun, one of the busiest shopping districts in Seoul, is always leading the latest trends, of course. At the complex, there are numerous shops selling this kind of super-chunky wool yarn in various colors: red, pink, blue, green and so forth.
Those who are not only interested in fashion but who are also attracted to the traditional esthetics of the craft, flock to the complex these days to buy such beanies and even to learn how to knit the super-thick yarn into their own caps.
Kim Che-won, who runs a wool shop here, called the DIY hats, “King-sized hand-knitted tuques.”
“Ever since I posted several images of this colorful wool and of hats made from this yarn on my private blog (http://blog.naver.com/defult3000), it just boomed, all in just one month,” said Kim. “I've had a constant flow of customers looking for this wool. I didn’t expect at all that the pictures I posted would cause such a great fever,” she added.
Kim Che-won, who owns one of the numerous wool shops at the Dongdaemun Shopping Complex, says, “A great number of customers, not only from home, but from overseas, too, like from Japan and China, come and look for the super-chunky wool these days.”
In the corner of her small, cramped shop, about ten young women huddle together, knitting hats out of this woolen yarn, using a pair of unusually short and thick knitting needles. “My customers consist mainly of young women. They buy a ball of wool for KRW 40,000 and learn here by themselves how to knit the wool into a hat,” said the owner. “The needles and wool are so thick that it's easy to handle them. A complete hat can be finished in just one hour. If you are skilled enough in knitting, it can be done in just 30 minutes.”
Even first-time knitters can craft a tuque in just one hour, as they use the thickest wool and needles.
Many such wool shops here will lend any wool-buyers a pair of needles and even have a knitting instructor on hand who teaches hand-knitting skills, all for free. A ball of super-chunky woolen yarn that costs KRW 40,000 can produce two hats.
“I don’t need to pay for anything else, except for the yarn, so the price isn't that big of a burden for me,” said Jeong Da-won, who was learning knitting skills at Kim’s shop. “I am now knitting a hat for my sister as a gift and I think it’s very meaningful, weaving by myself one stitch after another, to make a hat for someone special. I also realize that knitting can be fun.”
By Sohn JiAe
Photos: Jeon Han
Korea.net Staff Writers
jiae5853@korea.kr
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