Enhancement Aussie Style.

Hello again, well the absence was short lived. I've been enjoying my time away but before I even begin to get into what I've been up to lately there's a lot of catching up to do. For a start I haven't posted about my knitting adventures in Australia. Cathal has been busy posting (at length!) here about our month in Australia, he hasn't yet got to our third week but I'm gonna post here about my special yarn memories of Sydney. So, by the time we got to Sydney I was in NEED of some fibre therapy, we'd been having a wonderful time on our travels down the east coast but I hadn't come across any yarn stores along the way - I hadn't left any time for wandering off the beaten track but Sydney, Sydney was different. Right from the beginning I knew there was at least one store I could get to and had planned some time for me there on the first full day in Sydney. The day also happened to coincide with a Sydney Stitch N' Bitch meeting - how's that for planning. Anyhow back to the shopping. Tapestry Craft, ah the lovely wool they had there, lots of well known brands and a huge amount of books, magazines and patterns ( If found out later that I had probably shopped in Sydney's most expensive yarn store, ah well). I contented myself with an hour there browsing the yarns, checking the pattern books and finally settling on the following purchases.3 Jo Sharp Books - Knit Issue 1 & 2 and Saturday. (Well I was in Australia, it seemed only right). See those two innocent balls of yarn up there. They are only there as representatives of more, a lot more, let's just say enough to knit an Piccolo Orange Cowl sweater and a Kelp Green V Neck Vest, both in Knit Issue 1.That should keep me busy for a little while.

Then onto the best bit. I had been in touch with Meg, before I left New Zealand to see if I could come along to one of the Sydney Stitch N' Bitch meet ups. Luckily they were due to meet up on a day when we were in Sydney. So, off I took myself to Harts pub in The Rocks. It was a small but very friendly crowd there that evening. It was wonderful to meet Meg, Rebecca and Susan and to discover that the world over a group of young ( we are young aren't we?) knitters draws quite a bit of attention - particularly male attention when you are in a pub. I really enjoyed the evening it was great fun and I look forward to keeping in touch with the girls through their blogs. See how nice they are - they even let me take a pic for my blog.

After Sydney we headed off to Tasmania, the whole purpose of our trip to Australia was to go to a friend's wedding in Hobart. Cathal was best man so we got there a week before the wedding to make sure we could help out with any last minute preparations and of course to spend a bit of time with our friends. Again coincidentally we happened to arrive just in time to get to the Salamanca Market where I managed to pick up some very lovely Tasmanian Oak needles. Just beside the market was a shop called Tasmanian Woolen Co. so naturally I had to have a look and look at what jumped into my bag. Luckily I had anticipated a little bit of a stash enhancement while in Australia and had left some room in my bags so I could bring some wool back to New Zealand. Unfortunately though I had forgotten a little promise to myself earlier this year. See that lovely basket below. Well, I bought that to hold my yarn for the year. It's big enough to hold whatever I'm currently knitting and a little more, well actually it holds quite a lot more. So the deal was I could buy yarn during this year but it must fit in the basket, no more than that. No more! Look like there's a few other knitting things hanging round the basket? Yes and the difficulty is that it gets worse. A good deal worse, but that's for another day. I thought I gave up going to Confession years ago, and I've shared enough of my sins for today.