Day 6 - breakfast, shop and rest!

This morning I was a ring-in [as was DD] at a Ravelry barbecue breakfast! David had told me on many occasions about the breakfast but never that it was for Ravelry members! I think he just assumed I was a member! No one checked my Ravelry membership so there I was - having breakfast with a sizeable contingent of Australian Ravelry members. I knew some of them: David, of course, Donna and Meg. Some of them had blogs that I've read but right now I don't remember their blog names. The editors of Yarn magazine were there but I didn't get a chance to talk to them or to tell them what a great magazine it is! Biggest excitement for me was meeting Sharon, who is also a member of Knit4Charities! Sharon won a couple of prizes; she had the greatest number of hand-knitted items on her person, starting with her socks and ending with her ear-rings, which were also socks. At first, I thought they were knitted flat but no! They were fully formed, tubular knitted socks! Her daughter was also wearing a pair! [Both pairs knitted last night I believe]. Because I was wearing a hand knitted jumper made from Cleckheaton Country 8ply I won a pattern book [as did all the other members who were wearing something knitted from Australian Country Spinners yarns].


Thanks to Feisty Wench [I think this is the right link] for organising the day and Damo, of Australian Country Spinners, for "commercialising it!" [his words not mine].

I took some photos of the Ravellers but not being one I haven't uploaded them.

From the breakfast to the Mill shop! It was still cold [I forgot to take a photo]so the warmth of the shop was very welcome. Despite being told there was not much in the bargain shop, there was enough there to satisfy me! I bought two kilograms of 8ply white/cream pure wool [Classic] for $80. That's $2 for a 50g ball! I could never get pure wool at that price at home, not even on sale. I also bought some 'scraps' - bags of leftover yarns for $1.00 each. I bought six bags because they had mostly white yarn in the m and I can use the scrap yarn to do the dyeing experiments then use the yarn to knit up little items or as part of a larger item. The scraps weren't in balls but that's okay - that's what wool winders are for!! I also bought some sock yarn [$6.00 100g] and some wool [I think it's called roving] for felting or spinning! DD spins, I want to try felting, both wet and dry!! Two of the 'new' crafts I mentioned in yesterday's post. Plus I got three free jumper/cardigan patterns!! So my budget is blown but I have enough to keep me happy for a while yet!! DD is getting married in January so what better present can I give her than the beginnings of her very own yarn stash!! LOL


Back to our cabin where the air-conditioner works well! Brunch for me, juice only for DD. She hasn't been well for a week, hasn't slept well either for the past few days. She went to bed four hours ago so I think it's time to wake her up. And me...knitting [blanket for Wrap with Love], reading ["Sense and Sensibility" and Yarn magazine Issue 3 which I bought in Wangaratta], tea and chocolate! Soon I'll begin the packing so we can get away early tomorrow - we have a 860km [548 miles] trip home and I have to do it one day as I have a class to teach on Monday!

This is the end of my long and frequent posts; I can't promise they'll continue when I'm back at work! I hope you've enjoyed sharing the trip with DD and I! See you back in Penrith!

Australian Sheep and Wool Show, Bendigo

WARNING: LONG POST

Up early [for us, we are on holidays you know!] - the shuttle bus picked us up at 8:45am. If I'd known how easy it would be to get parking, I probably would have driven but, having never been there before, how would I know? It was very quiet when we first got there, like they were still setting up or something. We decided to climb the hill [a reasonable slope, nothing too vigorous] and work our way back to the bus pick up point. There was method in my madness: 1) we wouldn't spend all day walking uphill [which my cold knees would hate] and 2) the theory of leaving the best till last! The sheds closest to where the bus left us were labelled woolcraft; on the theory that's where the knitting would be - we would wait and see it last!

I'm glad we did it that way. Firstly, the last pavilions held the alpacas. DD loves alpacas and so she was able to wander around and look at them with only their owners in the way! No paying customers had made it that far so early! She managed to find one animal that would let her pat it and it even gave her a kiss. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera out at that point and he was in no mood to repeat the performance for the camera!

When I finally managed to get her away from the alpacas we went to look at various breeds of sheep. They all have their own pavilions - one for merinos, one for Corriedale, etc! The sheep pavilions were a bit more on the nose than the alpacas so we didn't hang around for long!

Into the first 'permanent' pavilion we came to. By permanent I mean a fixed shed, the others were temporary tent-like structures [marquees?]. Here we saw the first of the retail stalls. We looked, admired and touched and admired some more; but didn't purchase anything. My motto for Shows is "look first, buy later"; that way I don't end up carrying a multitude of purchases all day!

Ran into David [who not only has my favourite knitting podcast but is also a member of the same group of the Knitters' Guild as DD and I] so, of course, we had to chat! More looking then it was time for the first of the fashion parades. Out of respect to the designers whose work was shown, I didn't take any photos. Suffice to say, there are some brilliant minds out there - what people are doing with wool in knitting, crocheting, felting and weaving is mind-blowing. The garments made from wool fabric were also amazing. Who'd have believed that wool could be almost transparent and ooh, so soft and flowy!

After the fashion parade, we met up with friendly Catsmum aka Susan and her friend Jeanette - I had a box of postcards to hand over [promised months back]. It's amazing how much my DD and Susan had in common! We took the time to have a cuppa together and to talk a little.

More looking, admiring and touching followed; including DD's discussion with Sarah Durrant about Knitpick Harmony needles. DD loves them; I wish someone had given me such wonderful needles when I was a new knitter! We had a chat with the owners of La Grange Woolcraft about dyeing and ended up going back to buy Landscape Dyes from them.

There was a display of competition items in all manner of crafts; I was particularly impressed by the first prize winner of the team entry [5 items made by a team]: it showed a jetty from underneath and on top, mostly done in felting - fantastic work! Once again, I didn't take any photos - they were behind glass and taking photos through glass is tricky at the best of times; but my conviction against photographing others' work without their permission also ruled.

We saw an amazing display of dolls with needle felted faces. The maker was demonstrating her technique and I fell in love with doll making all over again! I'm going to save my money and make another trip to Victoria to do the workshop [$130 for two days] unless someone can persuade the tutor to come to NSW!

So, apart from the dyes, and a special present for WM [can't tell you what that is, he's reading my blog to keep up with our adventures while he continues working to pay for our purchases!! LOL] what did I buy? Nothing! Yes, that’s' right, nothing!! I know you'll all think I'm crazy but I'll try to explain.

I have more hand-knitted jumpers than I ever wear. Working in air-conditioning, it's too hot for even 5ply [sportsweight] jumpers/sweaters. With my frozen shoulder, I have trouble getting in and out of them so I probably wouldn't wear one unless I really had to - like today; it was so cold I had to wear a jumper; and who would go to the Wool show wearing a bought jacket? Lots of people actually, but here was one of my few chances to knit one of my gorgeous hand knits!

The hand-dyes I saw today were all lovely - but I dye my own yarns!

WM doesn’t feel the cold yet has two jumpers that he never wears - one of which won second prize in the local Show [State Fair] years ago! DD knits but won't wear hand knitted clothes [go figure]. Her reasoning is that other people need them more than she does.

So, nearly all my knitting [until DD and FSIL have wee ones] is done for charity. I love alpaca [it's unbelievably soft] and the new yarns [bamboo, soy, milk, etc] are amazing. But I need budget yarn [not beautiful yarn] for my knitting projects so, for now, it's remnant yarns and yarns on special that take my knitting budget.

You may not agree with me and that's okay because we need each other to make this world interesting. Besides all those retailers needs shoppers unlike me to stay in business! Regardless of our non-yarny purchases, we had a good time and the Show was well worth a visit just to touch and admire and see what’s out there [and add another couple of must try crafts to my list!!]

Off to breakfast in the morning and then the mill shop! [plenty of remnants, I hope]

going south for a week of winter

In Australia, the last thing one who hates the cold would want to do is to go south for the winter; unless one had a very good reason, that is!

DD and I are off to the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo next week, staying three nights in Wangaratta and three nights in Bendigo. Apart from the obvious [the mills in both towns] is there anything else a knitaholic shouldn't miss while in that part of the world?