Over the weekend I ventured out of Santos for a real treat & travelled to the BEST Yarn Shop in Sao Paulo. My destination was Novelaria located in the hip & creative area of Vila Madalena. This gorgeous treasure trove of a shop is along a normal, almost residential road with an apartment block to one side, that you can almost feel as if your on the wrong street. But once you are within 100 meters or so you will start to see a burst of coloured baubles hanging from a tree & you know you’re on the right track. If you’re like me, your heart will do a little happy skip & you cannot help yourself but smile.
The shop is set out into 5 areas which all seamlessly lead you to your destination of yarn. The entrance room is bright & airy with a large work table to one side, perfect for focused craft lessons & workshops. While the right wall has a large collection of modern craft books covering many areas of each craft, in both Portuguese & English.
Next you will walk through a small room filled with a large variety of craft kits, perfect for anyone wanting to learn a new skill or to give as a gift. Also here you will find a snug where you can sit, or craft while you wait for your orders to made. Above the comfy sofas (of many!) there is a whiteboard with information of all the craft lessons available throughout the week including Knitting, Crochet & Embroidery. Plus a selection of one day Workshops in specialist areas. While I was there they had Workshops for Crewel Embroidery, Crochet Raffia Bag plus many more.
Just off this room there is gorgeous little patio area, where you can enjoy the afternoon sun & feel at one with nature in this beautiful eclectic quirky space. Even thou this looks very colourful it was actually a lovely calming space to relax.
Once you have enjoyed a dose of Brazilian sun, you will enter into the second best space of any good yarn shop. The café! Here you can get traditional good quality coffee & a very yummy real cappuccino (which believe me is very difficult to find in Brazil, unless you go to Starbucks as they tend to be made from generic powdered sachets). Plus they have a lovely range of homemade cakes & of course it would not be Brazil without ‘Pão de Qeijo’.
To the side of the café area there is a craft nook for little hands, which I completely loved as I am so excited that Pod is coming to the age now where she is more independent & ready to start crafts.
Ok are you ready, now we get to our final destination & it does not disappoint! The space opens up into a huge room with one wall filled to bursting with gorgeous yarns from all over the world. The shelves cover every type of yarn from sheep’s wool, to alpaca, angora, silk, linen, raffia, cotton, viscous plus all the yarn blends in between. This was heaven as I am limited to mainly cotton in Santos or synthetic yarns. Within the paradise of yarns available you also have a huge selection of colours & textures to choose from. Including sparkly jewelled yarns blended with sequins to earthy organic textures.
The yarns also cover a large price range as you would expect from a specialist store starting from R$40 (50g) for a high quality linen to R$200 (100g) for luxury pure angora yarn. Once you have chosen you yarn the staff will wind your skeins into beautifully formed yarn cakes.
As well as yarn they have a large selection of embroidery floss & threads, with a range of the most gorgeous organic dyed threads which are one my list for my next trip!
Here you can also find crochet hooks & knitting needles including my favourite Tulip, Prym & Clover. Not sure which Crochet Hooks to choose, click here to read my easy guide.
The rest of this room is sectioned off with comfy cosy work spaces for various lessons, which happened to be in progress during my visit.
During my afternoon at Novelaria I had a delicious coffee while I spent an hour crocheting & absorbing the wonderful spaces both inside & out. The staff are both friendly & helpful & allowed you to enjoy your crafting time even if a lesson was in progress. While I crocheted I saw a wide age range of clients enter the shop, each greeted like a family member showing a lot of love & respect. The staff are very knowledgeable in their work & are able to answer any question you have with expertise.
So if you are ever in Brazil & you must visit the Novelaria Yarn shop in Sao Paulo!
Address : Rua Mourato Coelho, 678, Vila Madalena, São Paulo
And of course I could not possibly leave without some yarn of my own! I bought 2 skeins (which have been transformed into yarn cakes) of the softest cotton in a light dove grey. I think these two shall become a new tunic over the next few weeks.
If you have visited Noveliaria yarn shop in Sao Paulo, please share your experience in the comments below.
Love, Roseanna.
Lovely post. I’m visiting São Paulo soon and I want to bring back some yarn or a crochet hook for my friend who is an enthusiastic and experienced crocheter. I think I might visit here. Many thanks . Any other recommendations? He doesn’t speak Portuguese so patterns probably won’t be any good