Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show

My daughter & I escaped to Bendigo last weekend - we had a fibre-filled day at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show (the 134th year of it!) is where everything sheep and wool is on show... 

We had a great time watching the Sheep Dog trials and the sheep judging.  There was a petting farm for the kids and a few rides, but mainly for me there were shed-fulls of yarn, fibre suppliers and equipment.  We're already plotting our next trip next year!

Miss 6 turned her hand to weaving at a couple of stands and showed quite a flair for it!

 

We watched a bit of sheep judging... very interesting as they explained why which particular sheep won

We wandered round the fibre/yarn stalls buying some beautiful fibre

More weaving!!  Miss 6 is smitten!

Bit of sheep shearing - wouldn't be an Aussie sheep show without it!

Ahhh!

Spinning my way through the Tour De Fleece...

Ravelry have an event - the Tour De Fleece which runs at the same time as the Tour De France, where spinners set themselves individual goals to achieve during the Tour - we spin every day of the Tour and take the official rest days.  I've given myself a challenge of spinning a sweater's worth of yarn - whether  or not I will get there I am unsure but I already have 4 skeins of yarn (400g) and we're just over a third of the way through... so maybe my target wasn't as crazy as I originally thought!

Charlisa Yarns is Launched!!

Charlisa Yarns was launched in the last week on www.etsy.com/shop/charlisayarns and we also started advertising on the Australian boards on Ravelry.  The new logo is so cute.... my very talented sister-in-law (who happens to be a graphic designer) designed it...

Yarn offerings will be updated every fortnight on a Tuesday, or weekly if the yarn proves popular.  Both yarns are 4-ply which is a great weight for socks, gloves, shawls, baby clothing etc.  100% Australian Organic Merino is a luxurious yarn, gives great variation in colours and Blue Faced Leicester, which is a fantastic hard-wearing, yet soft yarn - takes dye colours fabulously.  I hand-paint my yarns, resulting in a unique colourway, that is unrepeatable - dyed in batches of 3 to keep exclusivity of colour.

Also look out for new knitting patterns being released soon as well as a Christmas Gift Yarn club - sign-ups coming in August with a yarn colour and pattern to make a Christmas gift (for you to give or keep!) in each month of September, October and November.

As yarns are dyed in small batches if you see a colour you like, do grab it whilst you can as the colors are all limited editions.