Preparing for Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show

Happy Fibre Arts Friday! There are so much going on in the fibre world at the moment, the Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show is only three weeks away, Sparrow and I are busy planning and preparing for the stock. This will be our first show as Cat & Sparrow because last year I piggy backed with her, we are so excited and slightly panicky, but mainly excited!

Here are some sneak peak of what we are taking to the show:

This is a new colourway called Brass Monkey. I like the funkiness of it and the fibre base is a luxurious blend of Polwarth, Baby Camel and Silk, the same base as the 'Go Lassie Go' I showed you last week - it's our favourite blend, so easy to spin.

Here's another one, which is part of a theme we are bringing out, think Game of Thrones (yes we are both obsessed!) it's all I can say for the time being ;)

Now show us what you have been up to!

Oh, yes, I also got this...

... but I'd better not start on these just yet or I'll never get anything done, besides, hubby and son number one are both champing at the bits to lay their hands on these, so maybe I'll just let them fight over it for now ;-)

Thanks for dropping by, please hop over to Andrea's at Wisdom Begins in Wonder for more fibre fun.

Tricky Tricsi, and some other stuff...

Hello there! Hope you're having a relaxing Friday winding down for the weekend. I had a a rather hectic week so not much was done in the crafting department, but I haven't been entirely idle with my hands so lets take a look...

Tricsi is a cute cardigan design by the talented Asa Tricosa, all of her designs are lovely and I have a few queued up. But I was particularly interested in the construction of Tricsi, it starts from the mid of the back collar, and you knit one half of the back collar plus a bit of the back on one side; then you knit the other half of the collar and the other side of the back, like this:

... then all are joined, and you're instructed to CO/pick up for the sleeves and fronts... sounds confusing? a bit lost? well, when I read the instructions I couldn't make the head and tail of it, but I was so intrigued by the idea that you could knit a cardigan top-down with build-in collar and sleeves and that it is totally seamless and self finishing, I forged on anyway...

Can you see the cardigan taking shape now? It certainly is a challenging project, one that demands your full attention as well as taking careful notes or marking off sections one by one as you complete them. Having come this far I think the trickiest parts are almost over, hopefully the rest would be plain sailing! I'm making this little cardi for my goddaughter Ericka whom I'm hoping to see at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. I'm also making an adult version for her mum, so in theory by then I will be an old hand at this "tricky" design ;-)

The annual Australian Sheep & Wool Show is going to be in July this year, a spinning friend of mine is taking part in a Co-op that will occupy a booth at the show. In a moment of madness (?) I asked to join her and contribute to her stock. The idea of making some pocket money from spinning has been brewing for quite some time, I thought this would be a good opportunity to test the waters. It's quite a challenge consider I've got three assignments to hand in before that as well as fit in work (shame!), but this is much more fun so I'm going to give it a go, wish me luck!

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!

Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show

We missed the Sheep & Wool Show last year, so for this year I marked the dates on the calendar so that not to miss it again this year. Unfortunately we could only make it on the last day which was last Sunday, the day started off sunny when my younger son played his usual Sunday football match, but by the time we arrived in Bendigo it turned overcast, but there was so much going on we hardly took any notice of the weather.

My little boy had a lovely time in the little patting zoo with baby lamb, alpacas, chickens, ducks, turkeys and a calf. He loved feeding the animals, one of the alpacas even had it's nose in the feed bag he was holding; but he didn't like being trod on by the little (but certainly not light) calf.

<- one of the three alpaca in the patting zoo, isn't she beautiful! 

I, on the other hand, wanted to see alpacas. I've often admired how lofty the alpaca wool felt, and I have heard how they were such gentle animals; but I have never seen one up close. There were three alpacas in the patting zoo and they were very patient with all the children fussing about them. As soon as I put my hand in their fleece I was in love, their fleece was sooo soft and fuzzy and warm, I wanted to caress them all day!



And we found a lot more alpacas in several other tents.

Suri alpacas (they have long hair) ->

<- The colour of this baby reminded me of rich dark chocolate.

The colour of this one is actually of golden honey, but I couldn't get it to show on camera.  ->

Ok, I was bit over-enthusiastic about alpacas, but they are just too cute! We got to chat with one of the breeders and he told us that alpacas are hardy animals and are very easy to look after. They like being in a herd and they seldom get diseases. Oh, and they are head-shy, which means if you want to pat them you shouldn't raise your hand in front of their eyes or you will startle them.

I wondered if I could keep a pair of alpacas for pets ... 

Of course, no self respecting knitter would ever go to a wool show without acquiring some new stash, it would have been a waste of opportunities! But there were so much to choose from, I wondered from booth to booth, sinking my hands in wonderful skeins of silk and wool and taking mental notes of all the possibilities, but temptations were everywhere and I couldn't make up my mind. Then one particular booth caught my breath and stopped me in my breath, bundles of hand dyed skeins piled on the tables, each of unique colours, I picked up a skein to savour it's delicious colours, only to be drawn to another, and another... I battled with myself, we were suppose to be saving money right now because we were going on holiday in September, but I couldn't move! 

After much deliberation I decided to be good and not to go too mad, and settled on these ...  they are hand dyed 4ply from Waratah Fibres, I was lucky that there were 2 skeins of the same lot, and the lady even gave me a free scarf/shawl pattern :)

Before we left, we visited the Kids Korner and my son saw a lady and had his personalised spider made for him. While waiting I was drawn to a booth by Try Dyeing - I've always wanted to try dyeing my own wool and this booth had read my mind! I bought a skein of 50% silk/50% wool fingering yarn and a two colour kit complete with spoon and gloves, and of course instructions on how to proceed. But I was also pleased to find that they had blocking wires for sale and at only $20/set. So I had to have them and a little tub of blocking T-pins.

It was a exhausting day but I was happy as Punch!!