Yarn, originally uploaded by Vimos.
This is one of many huge piles of yarn at Dongdaemun. The yarn market takes up a good part of the basement of a building that is about a city block in size, and it is packed with teeny yarn shops. There are stands selling regular wool, merino wool, scratchy wool, neon colored acrylic yarn, cashmere, japanese yarns, novelty yarns, sparkly, slubby, all sorts. Nice wooden needles with cable sell for about 500 to 1000 won (approx 50 cents to a dollar) but they are often thrown in when you buy yarn. When we bought a big hank like one of those in the picture, the nice lady who sold it to us gave me coffee and Samuel cookies while she wound it for us. It was a slow, awkward, transaction–much extreme politeness and apologetic sign language all around, but we both spoke “food” and “yarn,” two of the universal languages, so it all worked out.
Vimos 
I’m so jealous. Yamin’s mother knits all the time, in fact all the women of her generation knit, but I never saw yarn for sale in China. So I asked Yamin: “Where does your mother buy her yarn?” She answered that her mother unravels old sweaters and re-uses the yarn.
I showed my friend who knits, Barbara, your site — she now has yarn envy. Your travels are great reading – thank you!