Filling the well

I don't get to do a lot of non-writing related travel due to time and budget constraints. But this weekend I zoomed off to Adelaide (the capital of South Australia for the non-Aussies) to visit my brother and sister in law and the furry niece dog.

It was a nicely laid back weekend of pottering around and doing a few touristy things. Adelaide is a pretty little city and quite laid back (though home to some excellent doughnuts and, of course, Haighs chocolate - I love the dark peppermint frogs best).

Big brother was somewhat under the weather with a nasty cold so Melissa and I (yes, two Mel Scotts, it's confusing...and that's before you add in Mum being Merilyn lol) left him at home and did the girly browse and shop thing. We did the city on Friday and Saturday headed out to Woodside and Lobethal.

I know a lot of writers like to do various crafty things. I've traditionally preferred sewing and embroidery to knitting (and never really learned how to crochet) but Melissa is a knitting savant and these days also makes beeeeyootiful hand painted yarns (specialising in eco friendly fibres), so there were a few fabric and fibre related shops visited. I may have come home with some more quilting fabrics.

I did come home with this little dude:



He's an amigurumi (amigurumi apparently being a japanese crochet craze) from this book, and he and his creepy cute friends were so cute I think I need to learn to crochet properly and make some.

On Sunday Melissa has a stall at the Fisherman's Wharf market in Port Adelaide (so SA knitters are in luck), so I hung out with her there. And the wools and silks and everything looked so pretty all piled up (really, I think the thing that I really love about fabric and yarn is the colour aspect of it) that I decided to dust off my very rusty knitting needle skills and make some fingerless gloves (Melissa made up the pattern on the spot!). I even managed to finish them in a few hours. Which is about right when it comes to my patience for knitting and project. Apart from quilting I like things that I can complete reasonably fast. I think it's because novels take so damned long to write that the girls like things they can finish when it comes to other creative outlets). I even got some extra wool to make a scarf over the next few weeks.

Anyway, here are some pics of Melissa's gorgeous yarns to whet the appetite of any fibre addicts out there. Her website is www.strandedinoz.com.

Banana silk and recycled sari silk



Hemp and wool



All sorts of wool (sheep and alpaca, sadly I didn't get a pic of the perfectly camel brown baby camel wool!)





(my scarf wool is from the blues on the top of the pile above)



So pretty! You just want to stroke them and possibly eat them. I'd have baskets full piled up just as decoration.

This is what I did with some lovely soft merino she'd dyed in gorgeous deep ocean shades (she's under instruction to do more in this colourway).



I'm hoping all this gorgeousness and play will result in some brilliant words tonight after four days off. Of course, feeding the well may be offset by being slightly wrecked after day job but we'll see. I guess I'll report back later!