Uruguay · Cooperative hand-spun, hand-dyed wool knitting and weaving
No single standardized term documented
Wool yarn hand-dyed in large iron kettles over wood fires, then hand-knitted and woven by rural women in Uruguay's village cooperatives. Kettle dyeing gives each skein a subtly faded, striated coloring known as 'stria', so no two are alike. The work grew from wool weaving and knitting skills passed down from mothers and grandmothers and long practiced only inside the household; the first goods sold were blankets and horse saddle pads tied to gaucho material culture. Since 1968 the craft has been organized by the Manos del Uruguay cooperative, founded by five women to give rural women paid work and, in its own words, 'a means of women's empowerment and development.' It now unites a dozen or more village cooperatives and about 350 artisan-owners, opened a New York showroom in 1976, has exported since the 1980s, and tags every piece with the maker's handwritten name and village.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable — no UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription exists for this craft at time of writing
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