Wednesday, May 20, 2009

There was NO extra suitcase!

Contrary to popular belief rumour, I did NOT have to bring an extra suitcase back from Tasmania - either for yarn or for shoes!

I might have had to unzip the expander on my suitcase though. And the expander on my mum's (much smaller) suitcase. Tasmania's got some good yarn stores!! And did I mention some superfabulous bloggy friends? Oh yes, I met the famed Tinkingbell and the gorgeous Ms 2Paw!

I thought I'd give myself some time away from my Mum so she didn't drive me completely nuts Mum some time alone with her friends so I hired a car and did a little road trip for a few days.

First stop was the Tasmanian Wool Centre (no, not Tinkingbell's house - although I think it probably is the REAL wool centre of Tasmania!) - the actual Tasmanian Wool Centre, at Ross.
It had a little wool museum, where you could touch lots of different fleeces, and lots of knitted garments (mostly machine knits, but some baby and toddler handknits), other touristy stuff, and some yarn - real live actual Tasmanian yarn! Mr Rudd would be proud of my purchases - doing my civic duty to spend spend spend and support the local economy!
The fawn and brown yarn is the softest 8ply/DK yarn, from the east coast - big big skeins. The green labelled yarn is natural alpaca from Classic Park Alpaca Stud and the white balls are English Leicester - grown in Tasmania too (Wansted Park)! It's not quite as soft as the other, but I've never knit with it before so thought I'd give it a whirl!

(oh, and Ross is a lovely little town - well worth a stopover and a poke around the shops and the old bakery, which is about 150 years old, as well as the Wool Centre).

Next stop was Tinkingbell's! For some unknown reason, I didn't take any pictures there (sorry voyeurs!). I did have the full tour though, including all (I think...) the stash hidey holes and the view from the turret! Wow! And some of you think I have a lot of yarn. I'm a mere novice compared to superstasher Tink!! I had two nights with Tink and her family (her kids really took to me, which was lovely), including some imbibing of alcohol, some eating, some book reading (to the kids), some knitting, and yes, some yarn shopping - a very nice little yarn store on the main street in Ulverstone yielded this:
And to come entirely clean - I bought a whole bag of the Tango, not just these 3 balls...

Before the kids could tire of me, I headed back to Richmond, via Launceston where I met Ms 2Paw along with DarksideKnitter and her mum. We had a great time knitting (well duh!) and having tea and scones (well, that was me anyway ...). And then Ms 2Paw took me the LYS, Knits Needles and Woo (the "l" came off the sign - heh!). Where I picked up these:
Another ball of the elusive red Patonyle, and 3mm and 3.25mm KnitPicks tips! The ladies in the store were just unpacking them when we arrived!

Oh, and I mustn't forget, Ms 2Paw gave me presents! Fabulous things! A RoseRed sock project bag and a zippy case as well, plus gorgeously soft red yarn, Tasmanian fudge and a little Tassie devil phone charm (see, more Tasmanian wildlife!). Such lovely bags, I've been using the sock bag for my Cauchy socks, and the zippy bag for the small stuff I can never find in my handbag (now I can!!)
Our hosts in Richmond took us to Salamanca markets. While there were a few stalls with knitted hats and scarves, none had yarn, which was disappointing, although not surprising. But fortunately I sniffed out two yarn stores at Salamanca, in the permanent shops there. The Tasmanian Woollen Co sells fantastic garments (both machine and handknitted) and an eclectic range of yarn - it didn't seem to have a large range but had some very nice stuff...including this, which I'd not come across before:
Bamboo sock yarn called Happy! 75/25 bamboo/nylon - I can't wait to knit this up and see how it goes as socks! I was indeed most happy when I saw this!
And right next door is a wee shop called The Spindle Inn, a co-op selling yarn, fibre, handknits and the like. Including handdyed sock yarn! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! So hard to choose, but this is what I came away with:
All in all, a most successful visit in terms of yarn and in particular, bloggy friend meetups! Making friends (and actually meeting some of them in real life) through this blog has been one of the most unexpected, but wonderful, things that blogging has brought me!
*********************
Oh, and for those who asked, the orange shoes are from Nu by Neo, and the style name is "Grab"! An entirely appropriate name, I think!

28 comments:

Bells said...

Good golly RoseRed!! I have deliberately not asked you too much about the stash enhancement of the trip because I wanted to enjoy it all the inevitable post.

WOW.

You got some utterly gorgeous stuff there. Imagine, new sock yarn that we've not heard of before.

Yummy purple tango; pretty hand dyed stuff and gorgeous natural looking stuff.

Stuff stuff and more stuff and friends galore. How unutterably lovely!

MadMad said...

Wow - what a great time you had! If all mother/daughter trips were this successful, there would be more of them, I think! ;) What a fun post! What a great haul!

LynS said...

What wonderful yarn-purchasing. I particularly like the Tango and the hand-dyed sock yarn. And so good to meet Tinkerbell and see her fabled stash. Aren't holidays great?

kgirlknits said...

sounds like a holiday in Tasmania is a knitter's dream trip!

I think my LYS had that Happy yarn when I was there last - the knitted sample looked great, so I'll be interested to see what you think when you knit it up

Donna Lee said...

Wow. That's a lot of yarn but it's all so gorgeous that I can see you had to buy it. I've never seen bamboo done up as sock yarn. I've knitted with 100 % bamboo and it was slippery and slick like embroidery thread. I couldn't imagine it as a sock yarn.

Laura said...

Very, very envious of your trip! Would you mind giving the name (and possibly URL) of the shop with the Tango? Would love to get some but it's scarce as hen's teeth where I am!

amy said...

Oh I LOVE that brown you got at the wool centre. Love it. I wish that had been on my mother-in-law's tour!! My goodness, you'll be knitting with travel yarn for much time to come! I always like when yarn has a story, and then while knitting with it you can think about your trip.

Sarah said...

What fabulous souvenirs

Linda said...

What lovely new yarn aquisitions, I bet you wish you had an extra suitcase!

Em said...

Lovely yarn, and totally necessary, too. I love living vicariously through other knitters, especially when there's blogfriend meet-ups going on.

ps-today's verification word is trosent. roses 'n tea!

DrK said...

great haul! love the natural tassie stuff especially, all places in the world should have such souvenirs. we were worried you might not come down from the turret, glad you made it home, and that you had such a great time! (ok blogger is being a smarty pants, my word verification is swilit and im sure that has nothing to do with us all being piggies in the yarn trough!)

Gidgetknits said...

Oh, got to love yarn holidays!

chocolatetrudi said...

Oh my, what a fabulous haul! I'm going to have to plan a yarn crawl holiday in Tassie soon.

2paw said...

Dear RoseRed is was just so lovely to meet you!!! Thank you for coming and I am glad you found something to buy in Knits, Needles and Woo, and only sorry that their door didn't say 'Pus' anymore!!!
My word is 'rabie' and I can assure you there is no rabie, or rabies, here: The Labradors are unrabied!!!

sweetp said...

LOve the new additions!

Nora said...

I have an aunt in Hobart who buys up big everytime she's in Sydney because "they are hardly any wool shops in Tas!!" I'm definitely emailing this post to her! Glad you're back. Now to schedule [and ahere to] a "play date" with you... :)

TinkingBell said...

It was lovely to meet you and I'm so glad there were one or two souveneirs. Stash? I have no stash - not by the rules of stash, anyway! (Oh - and nothing you bought counts as stash - it is souveneirs and souveneirs don't count!

Michelle said...

I am so jealous!!! Love all your new stash!!!!

Lynne said...

Hmm! Me thinks it's time for a holiday to the apple isle!

Alwen said...

Wow, pret-ty yarn! I just wish I could pet it. That's the only thing I don't like about the internet!

Unknown said...

Lucky RoseRed, meeting those lovely bloggers! What a joyous post! I am overcome with the exclamation marks!

Ann said...

I am so jealous that you had such a great time shopping for yarn & meeting all those bloggers. I have to go to Tasmania too!

Lea said...

Oh i am very taken with that sock yarn - I wouldn't have been able to leave that behind

Geek Knitter said...

Well, one simply must buy yarn called "happy!"

'twould be just wrong to leave it behind.

catsmum said...

well done - must get to Ross the next time I go to Tassie.

Shazmina Bendi said...

Shoes are awesome. And the yarn, divine! Sounds like your trip to Tassie was amazing!

Anonymous said...

Fabulous yarn! I agree, meeting bloggy friends in real life is such fun!

Carol said...

Thanks for the tips of the shops, I laid down my dollars at The Spindle. LOL Sooooo beautiful, still to photograph.