Bendi 2010 PICTURES

The Bendigo Sheep and Wool Festival was on this last weekend, and Kelly and I, having saved our money for a bit, headed up on Sunday to buy all the leftovers! Wonderful Dear Hubby looked after the babies all day, and I only saw them for about 15min before I left and 15 minutes when I got home, which was weird for me, but a nice holiday, too. (I bought Nathan some fluoro yellow explorer socks as a thankyou.)
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We left Kel's place in my shakey old car and headed up to Bendi, stopping at the Daylesford market on the way. We arrived at the showgrounds a bit before 10am, and left a bit after 4pm. Lots of shopping time :D
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Here is Kel, learning to spin from the guy who hooked me into it last year. She got the hang of it, but I don't think she's hooked.



I think she's hooked here instead. The felting lady (check out the umbrella!) showed her how it works, and Kelly left Bendigo with quite a bit of merino and silk fibre!



There was fibre galore. More fibre than yarn, I think.


We sat and watched the fashion parade. I stood behind the "T" to try and get some photos, but the models wouldn't stand still! This girl makes me want to knit shawls for Jasmine.


When I sat down with the crowd, I was next to a little girl, about 5 years old, who kept going "Ooooh! Ahhh! Wow!!" every time someone colorful came out. It was hilarious! There was a lot of great stuff this year, particularly felted clothes.
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Kelly found some good chai tea after we left that shed. (I was satisfied with my Kahlua Fudge.)

We checked out the competition display shed. (This felted seahorse was one winner.)

I've heard a lot of bad press about the Sydney show's poor displays. The displays here were fantastic. They even had a massive cabinet just for handspuns. Hard to take pics through the glass, though, with the light reflecting. Anyway.

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Here are some beautiful felted scarves at Garments and Gadgets. I've been particularly saving for this shop (though you can get their stuff online)

I wanted some more of the merino that my brother and sister-in-law bought me. Here are the lovely ladies who unwound 150g of 6 different colors off the big rolls of merino for me. It took a while. And filled a bag. Kel got some, too.

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WHAT I CAME HOME WITH:

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Three new bobbins for my wheel, and a handful of buttons,

a stitch dictionary and a book about Moebius bags by Cat Bordhi,

a little fibre from G and G, in colors Nutmeg, silver, ice green, mocha, manganese and natural (with some blue mix and green mix on the left) and some blocking wires,

some merino/tussah silk (80%20%) (300g), a cute little spinning wheel keychain and some dark green semisolid sock yarn from EGMTK,

one tiny skein of Noro in this beautiful jewelly color (for $10, but sadly the only one left in that colorway)

and a 68g skein of dusky pink cashmere/merino (30%70%) from Ixchel. It's the first laceweight yarn I've ever bought, and I'm just impressed that it's 750 meters.

My feet were sore, and I had to drive home in the rain (which started at 4pm!) but it was a such a fun day off! I'll be back to Bendi next year!

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P.S. Here are a heap more pictures :D