Saturday, July 21, 2012

Australian wool and sheep show

this weekend Bendigo hosts the Australian Sheep and Wool show, an annual event.  We closed the shop for the day and took a mini bus up yesterday.  It was a lovely day.
It was cold when we got there so my first purchase was a pair of fingerless gloves made from the softest alpaca.  So nice!  (I forgot to take my nice long rainbow ones).  We then spent an hour wandering around before going into the ladies lunch hosted by Deborah Hutton with guest speakers Quentin Bryce (Governor-General) and comedienne Rachel Burger. 
After a nice lunch with lots of laughs courtesy of Rachel, we wandered around for a bit longer and then got back on the bus to come home.  There was lots of lovely wools to look at, and hold.  I did manage to buy wool, not sure why as i do happn to work in a WOOL SHOP!!!  but I found some lovely sock wool, a blend of bamboo, merino and nylon. It is so soft I am thinking of making a shawl. My head is full of shawls at the minute and I am dying to make one.  Actually, if I were being honest here, I am dying to wear one but am not sure I will stick at knitting a whole shawl!!!

Anyway, this is what i came home with:
two skeins of wool, fingerless gloves, two scarf/shawl pins, a set of stitch markers and three little badges.  The stitch markers are so very cute; again, I do work in a wool shop, and do have plenty of plastic ones, but these are soooo sweet i had to have them.
The only disappointing thing about the day was there was no-one selling knitting needles, row counters, circular needles; any of the tools actually required to knit with. So you could buy plenty of lovely wools, but nothing to use them with.  Such a shame.  I only saw two stands with shawl pins; I really was on the look out for something quite special. These are very nice and I am happy with them but they were really the only ones.  I believe it is a relatively new sho, and is growing bigger by the year so hopefully nect year there will be a stand with tools for knitters, and crocheters, on it.
Anyway, it was a lovely day and I had such fun. I have promised myself I will finish the little baby singlet I am halfway through before I pick up any stitches to start a shawl. (it isn't the only thing I have on the go, it is just the smallest and at least i will have finished something before starting something else!!)

4 comments:

  1. How nice i have been once to see Bendigo sheep show an really enjoyed it.Sounds like you had a great lunch and brought your self some nice things.

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  2. Karyn, I will not get to the show this weekend but perhaps next year. Are your shawl pins make of wood? I bought some as a craft show a few years ago and always forget to use them.

    I love your gloves - alpaca is sooo warm. Your wool looks great as well.

    The lunch sounds like a lot of fun. Our GG is very stylish - did she wear wool?

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  3. Thanks Ella; it was a lovely lunch.

    Dianne, our GG was very stylish and I think she was wearing wool; couldn't see much besides her head and shoulders. She was very entertaining. The shawl pins are made of ebony; they feel really nice and smooth. they will be perfect for the shawl I am planning to start.

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  4. Lovely purchases Karyn, and I really hope you find the time to knit yourself a lace shawl/wrap. I am loving the lace knitting again. The fingerless gloves look so very warm. I too am surprised about the lack of 'hardware' NOT offered for sale...... Your day out certainly sounded very entertaining. GG is a Queenslander of course.

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