I'm quite happy with it, more so than with the purple one. The mercerised cotton looks lovely and shiny. It's got me so excited that I want to knit doilys for everything! I've never understood doilys, what the hell you're supposed to do with them, but now I realise that it doesn't matter what you do with them, they're just fun to make! I'm keen to do the Primula design in the same book now, but I really must start Laminaria. I'll cast on tonight! I've been so busy since I got home making jam and jelly and beer, because it's the season for these types of things! So much fruit around so cheap. The blackberries will be out soon, and I'm planning blackberry jam, blackberry wine and whole blackberries in syrup for winter desserts! Last year me and hub picked two buckets, and that was only one day. We didn't get around to going back for more. Anyway, these are topics which probably require their own blog, but since I'm so slack about updating this one, I'm not sure it's a good idea to take on another.
Well I did have a little bit of a fibre-lover's holiday, thanks to hubby being such an angel who thinks that knitting is cool rather than boring. We stopped off at an alpaca farm in West Gippsland called something like Candeleraine. They were very nice, and even offered me work handknitting shawls from their 2 ply to sell in their shop! I said yes of course, although I'm not sure that I can really fit knitting shawls for money into a full time PhD schedule... We also stopped at the National Wool Museum in Geelong. Unfortunately it was a real disappointment. Especially since we went to Geelong especially for it, and paid $110 for our motel room and everything. It could have been so good, there was so much potential. I guess wool museums don't get much funding hey? There were definitely parts I liked, like the carpet machine demonstration, and some of the demo knitting machines. I think the shop could have had a lot more stuff too. I was expecting to have to make painful decisions about what wool I could and couldn't live without, but they didn't actually have any wool I wanted to buy at all. There were some lovely jumpers and shawls and things though. Australia is the biggest exporter of wool in the world. Surely there could have been more Australian wool products? (The little toy sheep were made in China, the second largest wool exporter). I did buy a handy little wool directory though, which lists heaps of wool-related companies and organisations. We were going to stop at Bendigo Woollen Mills, but they were closed. In the height of holiday season. We almost considered staying in Bendigo overnight so we could go the next day, but then I found out from the tourist info place that you can't actually see the mill itself, just the shop, and I thought well I can buy from them on the internet. I know about the famous back room and everything, but it wasn't worth staying a whole extra night, especially since funds were low by this time (thankyou Geelong). However, I learned about the Australian Sheep and Wool Show held in Bendigo in July, and I thought that would be a good opportunity to see BWM instead. I think I might saving now for that trip!
