Yarn and The City

TravelYarn

Mar 16

Written By

Last Friday I had to go to Mexico City for some paperwork. We decided to combine the bureaucracy with some fun and stayed for a whole weekend. I planned way too much for the these two days - museums, walking, yarn shopping... Well, not everything was done, but I did two main things - visit to Chapultepec and yarn shopping!Chapultepec can be found right in the center of the city. Though it is surrounded by huge skyscrapers and crazy traffic, this place preserves its own special atmosphere. We had only a couple of hours there and it is just not enough, next time I want to devote the whole day to it. Chapultepec is the largest park in Mexico City, it used to be a retreat for Aztec rulers; the park is valued as a cultural and historical place. While walking in the forest, you can find huge "Baths of Moctezuma" carved from stones and a gigantic Chapultepec Castle - very impressive sight.I was mostly impressed with vegetation. Most trees weren't brought in, but were originally there, some of them must have witnessed great Aztec rulers! So exciting!If you ever find yourself in Mexico City, this is the place that you should visit - history, nature, beautiful architecture - you'll find all of this here.And of course I couldn't leave the city without some yarn! I've been very, very good, trying to be kind on the family budget and was on a strict yarn diet for more than seven months now, working solely from my stash. So, I splurged. I deserve it, right? :) Anyway I am so so excited about my new yarn addition!!! Beware of the yarn photos overload, I am sorry, I just couldn't restrain myself!The first one is the delicious blend of linen, cotton and silk (60% natural cotton, 30% linen, 10% silk). I worked with Italian linen/cotton blend for the first time knitting my Soho dress and I found it absolutely delightful.This one is made in Mexico and 10% silk makes such a huge difference, the yarn is strong thanks to linen and cotton, but silk makes it so smooth and gives it a slight luster.

The colors are jut wonderful - earthly shades of beige, ivory and pistachio green.

The yarn is probably fingering weight, I would guess 3-4 ply. It will be great for light summer tops and sweaters or a dress. I also tried swatching with two strands; oh, this texture is so so inspiring!The second yarn is 100% combed cotton. I never worked with this type of cotton before and in the shop it looked like usual mercerized cotton, but when I touched it, I realized that the difference is significant. Combed cotton is more expensive than the usual one, but it is worth the money.I did a research and that is what I found out. The cotton fibers go through special treatment that pulls out all the short fibers and impurities of the fiber from the thread. As a result, the combed cotton yarn is made only of long straight fibers that are evenly aligned. This makes yarn much stronger and, at the same time, softer than the conventional cotton.The yarn is very thin, so I will probably use it for a machine knitting project. It was so hard to choose colors! Dark green and turquoise stole my heart, I couldn't let any of them go, so I got both!