Hi everyone! Another update from China, woohoo! I’m in Dali, Yunnan province right now, and I can’t wait to tell you all about the amazing stuff I have seen. But most of all, I’m excited to show you my first yarny souvenirs!
On our first day in Chongqing, we planned to go see the Yangtze river and hike on Nanshan ‘South Mountain’. On the way there, we stumbled across a huge amount of yarn shops! Imagine my enthousiasm when I saw heaps upon heaps of yarn..Yarrn!!! The skeins you see on the bottom here were around 8 yuan per skein.. (1 euro) I’m seriously considering buying an extra suitcase here to fill with just yarn. So much yarn!!*Heavy breathing*
There was so much yarn in this particular store that even the floor was completely packed. I noticed that the Chinese like their yarn in boxes instead of just unpacked on the shelves. Maybe to keep the wool from getting dirty? The unwound skeins were all unpacked though, and much cheaper than the rest. Seeing all this yarn I decided I needed (yes, needed) to buy at least one skein of yarn. I didn’t want to go for the cheap acrylic yarn, so here’s what I got:Lovely soft bamboo yarn! I thought it was kind of funny to buy bamboo yarn in the land of bamboo 😛 Plus I tend to favour cotton-like fibres over wool nowadays. Maybe because it suits the summery weather better. I’m pretty sure I’ll go back to luscious merino in a few months 😉
This set of 6 50gram balls was only 30 yuan (about 4 euros). Right now I’m planning to buy some more if I see them again.. Too bad I couldn’t just buy 1 skein of each colour I liked, you really have to buy the entire box. Right after buying the bamboo yarn, we turned the corner and discovered that there was an entire MALL of just yarn!! Oh. My. God. I think I was hyperventilating by now. Luckily, my boyfriend was very patient and let me snoop around in the yarn stores. They also sold handmade clothing! Unlike the chunky knits you see here, the garments were made using the finest yarns and tiniest needle sizes. Also, Chinese people seem to love mohair and other fuzzy fabrics. Here, I’m looking at some sock knitting needles. Usually, the needles around here are made from wood or bamboo, but the really tiny ones are always made from metal. This has always kept me from buying them since I thought they would be too heavy, but they are surprisingly light compared to European metal needles! The yarn shop lady told me that the Chinese metal needles are hollow, so they are just as light as bamboo needles. Perfect! I bought two sets of ‘number 15’ needles, which seem to be around 2mm. One for me and one for my mother! Note that you only get four needles here, not five.In this area of the mall they mostly sold handknit garments. I thought the colours were so dark! Only the children’s outfits were brightly coloured. Pastel doesn’t seem to be really popular around here.Just outside of the stores, these women were having fun with their knits! Oh, how I wish I had my knitting with me that day.. It would be great to just sit there with them and knit, don’t you think?
I wonder if other cities have yarn shops like this as well! If you are in Chongqing, be sure to check this street out: Shanxi Road ???. If you walk from Jiaochangkou to Chaotianmen, you’ll come across it. The shop owners most likely don’t speak English, so be prepared if you decide to do some yarn shopping. I’ll keep you updated on my yarny adventures through China! Be sure to check my Instagram as well for more pictures 🙂 Until next time!
