Yarn shopping in Madrid

Went yarn shopping today. Before that, I looked for information in the Ravelry Madrid group and got some replies. There's one Spanish brand, Katia, but it seems they don't produce yarn that is worth it to get obsessed about. There are some small yarn shops, but one was too far for me, the other one mostly sold Katia and the third one sold yarn by the weight (that sounds bad...), so I decided to go to El Corte Inglés which is THE department store in Spain (or at least where I have been so far). Their products are usually of high quality and they have Rowan (you can't really go wrong with Rowan, although I'd say the singles they sell is probably just going to felt like any other yarn. Have you also noticed how lately singles have become a trend? Some ideas sucks and this is one of them. In case you have noticed, the yarn that is sold for felting, is also a one-ply. I think the worst idea was the sock yarn from Schöppel that was single.)

I got me some Felted Tweed in a really nice dark blue. Of the green I originally wanted, unfortunately, only one ball was left. I've used this yarn once for the Gretel beret by Ysolde Teague. I think if you're not careful it felts, but it should be ok. It might also be a good yarn to use for the Deep V Argyle Vest that I made. It's definitely softer than the other one.

The Corte Inglés has a nice selection of Rowan yarns. Prices are similar to here, if not the same. Now, the thing that sucks in Spain if you knit (at least for me) is - they use mainly straight needles. There were short circular needles (40 cm) in bambú by Prym for nearly 9 €?! And some metal ones, 80 cm long (cheaper, but I seldom use metall ones in that length). And of course they did not have all the sizes that I would have needed. The yarn I finally picked was the result of some kind of compromise between color, weight, and availability of needle size and length. I think if I had known that, I would have brought some of my unfinished projects with me or some needles.

Next week I might check out the Madrid knitting group.

Some other random thoughts about Madrid:
- I went to a little supermarket today and they had organic soy milk! And wholemeal toast! Not what I would have expected.
- I get lost all the freaking time. Somehow I lost the ability to read maps and remember where I have to go. Yesterday it took me more half an hour to find the bus stop and when I finally found it, it was so late that no buses were running anymore. And today I managed to take the right train, but in the other direction. Instead of riding the metro for six stations, I got the whole roundtour.
- Why are there no complete lists of all the places where the bus stops at the bus stops? Sometimes I'm standing at the there and wonder if I'm at the right stop or not or if it's indeed going where I want to go.
- People in the metro kind of looked down. I wonder if it's because of the financial crisis? Apart from that, they say hello way more often than here.