The Australian Sheep and Wool Show 2014

 Hello crafty peeps! How was your weekend?  Mine was great!  

Yesterday my man and I went on a drive to Bendigo so I could visit the Wool Show (officially The Australian Sheep and Wool Show I think), I hadn't been there before, and I wanted to check to out this year.

It was a great day, filled with colour, yarny goodness and people who were so enthusiastic about all the stuff I love!  I was pretty much in my element!

I had my first ever try at spinning yarn, something I think could become another addictive hobby. The lady at the stall convinced me that yet another crafty hobby was perfectly alright, so I bought a drop spindle to practice with at home.  A friend of mine has a big bag of fleece shorn from his sheep and has said I can spin that if I'd like, so I had better get practising.  I also got a rundown on how to clean and card the fleece, although I fear it went in one ear and out the other, so that will require more investigation.

And as you might imagine, there was a lot of gorgeous wool! Beautiful, colourful squishy balls of yarny pleasure!  

It was a little overwhelming, and there was almost too many choices, so I actually was quite restrained with my shopping, I did buy some lovely 10ply hand dyed in natural dyes, like brown onion, walnut, red cabbage and madder ( great names I thought!).  I hope I bought enough to make a blanket or at least a pillow case.  I also saw some scrummy alpaca that was in beautiful strong colours, but my budget had been blown by this stage, so I just had to admire it.

There were lots of things for the spinners, huge piles of colourful rovings just waiting patiently to be spun into lovely yarn, lots of spinning wheels and people sitting contentedly spinning amidst the crowds.  I looks very relaxing actually.

Weaving also got plenty of attention and I saw lots of cool looms for sale.  I just wanted one because they are such interesting looking piece of equipment!  Weaving is also on my list of things to try this year.  I had a chat with an artist who made these amazing woven artworks, they were tiny and intricate, and beautiful.  I am going to attend a workshop in August and learn how to weave in miniature with embroidery thread. It looks amazing, very contempory!

There was also plenty of crafty talent on display, most stalls had lovely examples of knitting and crochet and plenty of patterns and kits to get you started.  And a hall of competition knits, crocheted things and spun yarn, it was interesting to see which pieces had won prizes, it was hard to tell which items were the best to be honest, I think the judges would have had a difficult time deciding.

 I had a nice chat with the ladies on the Machine knitting display and have rekindled my interest in having a go at this.  I am not having my luck finding a machine, I keep getting out bid on Ebay, and it doesn't help that I am not really sure what I am looking for!  Apparently there is a machine knitting group in Koo Wee Rup that I should get in touch with, that's reasonably close by, so must put that on my to do list too!

  

It was quite an inspiring day, my brain was buzzing with all the things I want to do!  My patient husband got quite the crafty ear bashing on the way home but managed to seem reasonably interested in my chatter!  (he didn't actually come to the show with me, happy to drive me there and preferring to explore Bendigo for a few hours by himself , he's a good guy!).

I stopped by the Knitting Mills before we left Bendigo and stocked up on a few bargains from the back room, and somehow quite a bit of colourful 4ply found it's way into my basket, I have a few crafty plans for that stuff! 

We also visited Maldon on the way back for a late lunch, oh I love that town so much!  One of my favourite spots to visit when up Bendigo way.  They have great pies too! :)

So all in all a lovely day out. 

I hope you had a good weekend, did you have a fun one too? 

Talk soon!

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