Bendigo Sheep, Wool and Women of Wool

I've left it so long to post about Bendigo that it almost seems redundant now, but punctuality has never been my strong point anyway ..

This was my third visit to Bendigo, second time at the show, and once again it was country Victoria that really stole all the limelight. I love the whole feel of Bendigo, the grand old buildings, wide streets, the sophisticated restaurants and bars and the seemingly vibrant art culture. And, once again, I felt like I just didn't have the time to explore it enough.

When we arrived, after a quick brunch in Daylesford and slight detour to the mills of chocolate and yarn, we quickly found Bells and Kylie at the Shamrock Hotel, and were soon joined by Jody and her lovely mum. A few champagnes, red wine and a steak later, I found myself quaffing lychee martinis in the dispensary, an uber cool bar in down an alleyway. I'm a complete lightweight mind you, because it completely did me in for the rest of the weekend. I had a headache until Monday!

I had hired a small car from the airport for Donna and I, and to our great pleasure we were upgraded to a Falcon - so we hooned it all the way to Bendigo. Lucky too, because with two additional passengers (the more the merrier) on the return trip and all the luggage, we certainly would have put a little Hyundai Getz through it's paces!

On the way back, we were delightfully suprised by the charm of Kyneton, especially the gorgeous craft shop pick up stitches. I was very taken by Annie Smither's Bistrot and over delicious coffee in luxurious surrounds of yet another of country Victoria's sophisticated cafes, we planned our next Bendigo Trip, involving a few days in Melbourne, a few days in Bendigo and a night in Kyneton on the way home.

Then it was back home with a bump, after arriving at the airport with hours to spare we knitted for a while before being shunted into our seats on tiger air for the short trip home.

What did I buy? Not much actually - some buttons, some habu linen, some Irish Linen thread and some t-pins. Some sock yarn as a gift. Some truffles. A bit of Alpaca from BWM and some luxury 4 ply via an impassioned twitter plea from Miss Fee, which I hope to deliver as an excuse to see her new house.

The highlight of my trip was bumping into one of my knitting heroes, RiotousAssembly. I fear I made a dreadful starstruck fool of myself, but I was completely thrilled to meet her!

Also up there was being tackled by an effervescent and gorgeous DrCris - and her lovely Angus - she is just as awesome irl as I thought she would be, on the Friday night I saw her drop spindling with a weight assisted spindle talking of muscle memory - and even though I was still so hungover I could hardly talk - I was fascinated!

I've been completely immersed in knitting and dyeing this week, here's a picture of my knitting what seems like an endless yoke but loving how it's coming out.



Also been dyeing a 'jewel toned' set of yarns - coming this week into the shop. The hardest thing about this project has been the photography - I seriously need some advice in that area.

And I bought a website today! Now to work out how to use it!