The Bendigo Haul

Shawl pins from All Buttoned Up

I had such as wonderful time at Bendigo this year.

Did I stick to my list? Pretty much.

I have added all my new yarn to my Ravelry stash already, but wanted to do a blog post to highlight all the great vendors.

Needles and cables - all purchased from Fiberific!.
Two ChiaoGoo "Spin Cables", 75cm and 125cm. For most things I prefer these over the red twist cable as the are more flexible and they spin at their base which I really like.

Wool N Wire stitch markers

Three sets of the "Twist" Lace needle tips in sizes 2.75mm, 3.5mm and 4mm - sizes that I regularly use.

Accessories and stitch markers
Two shawl pins from All Buttoned Up - Vintage Jewellery Melbourne.
A set of blinglets medium sized stitch markers from Fiberific!
A set of stitch markers from Wool N Wire


Yarn
Dyed by Hand Yarns (top three skeins):
White Gum Wool DK - 2 skeins in Purple Sea Urchin
Tough Stocking (4ply)- 1 skein in Blue Ringed Octopus
Tough Stocking (4ply) - 1 skein in a "one hit wonder" purple colourway

Colleens Crafts (first two, bottom row left to right) :
Corriedale DK - 2 skeins in Sage Green Tones
Corriedale DK - 2 skeins in Charcoal

Mayhem & Chaos (middle right and bottom right):
Crazy Eights (DK/8ply) - Voodoo Lady - enough for a sweater (thinking this will be the main colour for the Pixelated Pullover)
Lollisox - Taste the Rainbow - sample of fingering weight

What to wear to Bendigo?

A quick post this week, as I prepare to head to Bendi this weekend.

The shopping list is prepared. I have added some tools to the list too; additional Chiagoo needle tips and the twist cables.

Travel plans are set. I am driving to a friends on Friday afternoon to catch up, craft and have some wines. Saturday we are driving to Bendigo together, then back to her house to “play” with our purchases.

Final thing to sort out, I think is the toughest – what am I going to wear!?!?

I have three suitably warm knit tops. Miranda, Charleston Tea and Tric. Yarns for all three of these projects were purchased from previous Bendigo trips. They are all comfortable and I'm really pleased with them and proud to show them off. So I am thinking I may pack all three and decide on the day.

The hardest part to choose is the rest of the outfit and knit accessories. Victoria has been experiencing an extremely wet and cold winter, and Bendigo has a reputation for being extremely cold. Gloves, scarf, beanie etc will be essential. But how much knit is too much knit?? Is there such a thing? Also need to keep in mind that I will probably also need a coat (which then covers up all the knitting) and I think gumboots will be the footwear of choice (with hand knit socks of course). My blanket box is full of choices, will be hard to decide. I may end up taking a lot of this with me!!

How do I choose what to wear from so many knitted accessories??

Thoughts of Bendigo Sheep and Wool Festival

It's dark and it's cold! You would think the perfect time for knitting. But I am making slow progress. A couple of reasons come to mind; my hands are cold at home, so I find it hard to knit, but the more prominent reason is that I want to knit all the things. Distracted by thoughts of the up-coming Bendigo Sheep and Wool Festival next weekend.

So what has been taking up what should be knitting time? Knit planning!!

I know that I want to knit more sweaters and multicoloured shawls. At the moment whenever I look on Ravelry, these are what I am drawn towards.

I am really enjoying wearing my current selection of coloured shawls as they are great fashion pieces and practical for keeping warm in cool air-conditioned offices. And as far as garments are concerned I feel that I have only just begun to get into this part of knitting and want to expand my wardrobe for more occasions and weather.

My library, queue and favourites are already filled with projects that I have added over time. I have been going through each of these areas as a starting point for new projects, especially from my library. It is amazing how many patterns are in my library that I have not yet knit, I purchased them because I liked them and intended to knit them but they have been left unloved and unknit. I am not the world's fastest knitter, so this will not be rectified in the short term, but at least I have reminded myself that when I have an urge to cast something on I should check my library first.

So what stands out to me now?

The Bloom Shawl - by Kiri FitzGerald-Hillier

Tau - by Melanie Berg

Pixelated Pullover - by Jennifer Beaumont

Crossover Cardi - by Maria Yarley

I also want to knit multi-coloured shawls and have a collection of them in my library (mostly by Melanie Berg).

I have looked at my stash, and I have potential yarns for coloured shawls, lots of single sock skeins, but nothing in stash for the sweaters. It is interesting to reflect and review the stash. I will take a deeper look at stash in another post in the coming weeks (maybe after I have added to it at Bendigo and need to do a proper update/audit of everything!).

My lists are almost complete. I have made notes on yardage and yarn types for these projects and also have in mind a rough idea of colours. But once I am in the midst of all that yarn I know I will get carried away and probably come home with some skeins that are pretty rather than practical. That is, of course, all part of the fun.