Madrid!<\/p>\n
Well Madrid is a lot colder than I thought it would be. But it is February after all! On Wednesday the tv was full of reports of the city’s “record” amount of snow. It didn’t look like much snow to us but was a big deal to the Spanish.<\/p>\n
I had read on the Madrid Knitting Meetup blog that the city was a “yarn desert” and when I visited The Black Cat I was a little disappointed. Although it has a big selection of weights of yarn and a reasonable amount of colours, most of the yarns had acrylic in them. I’m a self confessed yarn snob so acrylic isn’t my cup of tea.<\/p>\n
I did buy just under a kilo – for the yarn is sold by weight in The Black Cat – of a tweedy light-worsted weight yarn that’s half wool and half acrylic. That should be enough for two cardis. I bought two shades, one is a purple mix the other a turquoise\/teal mix.<\/p>\n
I still think that El Gato Negro is worth a visit if you’re ever in Madrid.<\/p>\n
One store that was a real surprise though was Inke. I heard about it from Andy as the owners’ are relatives of one of his friends. The shop sells supplies for cross stitch, beading and quilting as well as some yarns. They don’t have a massive yarn selection but it was enough for me! They have some Noro, Katia, Mondial and other brands.<\/p>\n
I bought ten balls of Sakura by Mondial in a turquoise variagated shade and two balls of Katia Hippy Mix – a novelty yarn. I got a discount on the Sakura because I purchased ten.<\/p>\n
I’m planning on going back to Inke because there’s another yarn that I wished I’d bought.<\/p>\n
So what else have we done? Well I’ve drunk a good quantity of hot chocolate! Spanish hot choc is quite thick and made with real chocolate melted into milk. We’ve bought a few bars of drinking chocolate to take home.<\/p>\n
In addition to much walking and getting used to the different hours over here – most restaurants don’t open until after 8pm – welve also been to the museum of modern art. Saw Picasso’s Guernica which is still disturbing. You can buy mugs and mousemats with the painting on in the museum’s shop but it’s not something that I would want to drink my morning tea from.<\/p>\n
Today, we’re going to have a better look around Plaza Mayor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"