Bendigo in a day

The Australian Sheep and Wool show in Bendigo (or Bendigo, Bendi, or other terms of endearment) is an annual pilgrimage for those of us that appreciate wool in all its forms. This year, with the train being replaced with a bus service due to works on the line, we decided to take a car and travel together. This enabled the usual chatter, plus the bonus of a side trip to the Bendigo Woollen Mills.

I managed to spend all my money (?) on beautiful yarns, wonderful tops and NO fleeces (I have TOO many unspun fleeces.) I've even managed to pack them away....sorry....before taking pictures!

I did manage to see sheep! There's always a wide variety of breeds and the judging of the fleeces can be viewed and increases your knowledge of breeds and quality. I did manage to have a quick look at the Cashmere and Mohair goats. Next year, I'll make it to the alpacas!

A trip through the various woolcraft sheds is never complete without a visit to Lewis Harper, the wonderful wood turner.

The Woolcraft competition is wonderful, with a shed full of spinning, weaving, felting, crochet. Young and Novices and the more experienced testing their skills and displaying their craft...and...

the Experimental Spinning group won first prize in the group entry class!

So, a brilliant day, with good company, laughs, treasures, finds and plenty to keep me occupied for awhile, at least till next year!

See you there, sometime.

Just cleaning up...silk and steel!

I thought I'd better see what was remaining on the little camera. Silk and steel! A lovely yarn picked up at the Handknitters Guild fair from Dairing a new crowd in Richmond with some wonderful yarns.

Because of the silk and steel mix this yarn has a memory. If you squash it, it stays somewhat squashed. I had to try it. However, it is expensive, so I ran it through my knitting machine. They recommended a tension of 8 which is quite loose, however, the added stiffness was probably the reason. I did it on 7 and tried to create folds to try for more 3-d effects.

I was reasonably happy with how quick and how interesting it was. It displayed nicely on my little neck stand and was sold at Rose St. Artists' Market last Sunday.

So it was a success and I will be definitely be making a trip to Dairing to see what goodies I can play with.

A new toy!

It's been awhile since I had a new camera. I've been using my husband's very lovely little Nikon coolpix. It's packs quite a punch for a little compact. But I had to move on.....

It's a lovely Canon from Ted's Camera store, they had an end of financial year sale and I think I did very well. Unusual for me, especially when all I wanted when I went in the store was a battery for the Nikon and a quick look at what they had. Haven't always been happy with the service at Ted's but the lovely lady at Northland was very helpful and I couldn't resist.

Suffice to say I'm happy and now I'll have to take more pictures!