Berry was the town we chose. It's a tiny little town nestled amongst some very green and pretty hills, which you'll have to just imagine since I got very lazy on the weekend and took virtually no photos. Trust me, it's every bit as scenic and adorable as you could imagine it to be. Sean and I spent a weekend there last year, around this time, so I knew what I was in for. Actually there are a few photos from last year's trip I can recycle. This one gives you an idea of the landscape around Berry.
It's your typical small Australian town that has turned to small, folksey business in order to survive. Bed and breakfasts, antique shops, excellent restaurants, bakeries and cafes.
And a wool shop. OK, a yarn shop. Somehow calling it a wool shop sits more comfortably with my sense of old time Australia. I grew up calling such places wool shops because in the 70s and 80s, that's pretty much what they sold. Wool. And haberdashery in general. I still feel most at home in those old shops with their packets of fine Australian fare, Patons, Cleckheaton, that sort of thing.
More on that in a moment.
There was a fabulous garden at the 1860 cottage George found for us to stay in where I found some fun things to photograph.
Like the scarecrow who I think had seen better days.
I dubbed him Worzel Gummage.
We found asparagus growing in the garden. A small, developing patch so we left most of it in tact, but I got to eat this spear later on. Fresh asparagus out of the garden - my first time!
Just one photo of me posing cheesily in the garden. It seemed like a good idea at the time!
And pretty, pretty bluebells. It was that kind of garden. Little points of discovery and interest around every lush corner.
Do you want to know what five obsessed knitters talk about all weekend? Go on, have a guess.
Ravelry. I think we talked about that more than anything else, or at least it felt like it. Who knew that a knitting site could sustain so much interest and conversation. Thank God there were a couple of iphones there on the weekend so that we could easily check Ravelry for the patterns we were talking about. I'm not sure how we'd have coped! (Joke)
So let's get down the really important stuff. The stash. Sew n Tell in Berry is a very classy shop. It's got the good stuff. And it's amazingly well priced in some instances. I think I was quite restrained in terms of volume. I aimed high this time and I did not disappoint myself. Note the purple Kidsilk Haze. I've never owned that before. I just want to stroke it all the time and listen to it purring!
1. Cascade 220, 2. Kidsilk Haze, 3. Rowan Cotton, 4. Noro Iroha
And to continue the purple theme, which was not intentional, it just happened, here's the Wollmeise I bought from RoseRed who is the kind of person who has Wollmeise to burn, I mean, destash.
I saved up for all this stuff and loved every single moment of choosing it all. I decided, when I looked at it all and my other stash at home that really, it's like a collection now. A collection I'm increasingly proud of and besotted with. And I know I'll enjoy knitting with it.
So all in all a very happy weekend. And just maybe, the idea was born in Berry of a chick-lit novel with a handsome sheep farmer and a heroine who loves to knit. Or something. It's fun to dream about it any rate. Who knows maybe I'll even write it!
Bells
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