When I was young my Mom sewed dresses and pant suits, knit us kids plenty of mitts and scarves, and continued to have some sort of needlework on the go throughout her life. My favorites were her crocheted afghans. She followed a wave pattern with three or four alternating colours. They offer cozy comfort with a book or while watching TV.
Decluttering our home this summer I came across a partially knitted scarf, in multi blue hues, that Mom had started. She had several things going at one time and it all did not get finished before she passed away.
Feeling like I needed to have a rainy day project on this trip, an afghan seemed doable. Mom’s blue wool would make a good start. Google had a pattern similar to hers, along with the guidance I needed to relearn the stitches.After a few trial and errors I finally had three rows of a decent length. The Canada rows.
The Plan. For each country that we visit, search out local yarn, using it to add another set of waves to the afghan. 
I started this a few weeks ago and then ripped it all out because the waves and troughs were all out of sinc. Haha.
Mexico. In the small village of Teotitlán, beautiful colored rugs are woven on hand looms from sheep wool that is spun and colored with natural dyes. At a rug making shop, I purchased a skein of green wool to represent the agave plant which is grown in large fields here, and also grows in the wild. Both field and wild are used to make mescal.
There must be a method to unraveling a skein but I don’t know it. So it took me two evenings to get most of it rolled into balls. Then the crocheting went along ok but there are hard bits stuck in the wool – like coarse hair.
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua I looked in many shops but could not find local wool, so decided to combine these countries using the colours of their flags which are blue and white.
I found imported thin wool, that my Mom used to call baby wool, in a small sewing shop in Copán.
I will try to make 2 blue rows, 2 white rows and then 2 blue rows.
It is very fine so I will have to double it, and I might not have purchased enough.
Costa Rica and Panama I encountered the same lack of local wool in these two countries. But again, I was able to find the imported wool. I chose pink to match the gorgeous Bougainvillea flowers that are seen all over both countries.
Colombia In the city of Medellin, we googled the location of a wool store, then hopped the subway. A few more blocks of walking took us to the store. There were walls of colored balls. It was hard to decide. But I finally chose yellow/gold to match the breast of that cheeky Macaw named Guaca. He was so beautiful.
