Wild Wool and Silks - Yarn Tour Part IV

You could be forgiven for mistaking this as a knitting blog but it does become a bit of a past time round here in the winter. So we bid Hobart a fond farewell and climbed back on the bus and travelled an hour north of Hobart along the Midlands Hwy to historic Oatlands, home of the (still working) flour mill (recently restored).

Oatlands is very much like Ross and remains mostly untouched by modern paraphernalia, maintaining it's original sandstone and clipped hedges streetscape. As you can see, our beautiful mild winters day morphed into an equally mild and cloudless sky afternoon. The day was picture perfect.

Opening especially for us was the "Lucky Ewe" shop, and again, a shop quite different to the previous shops at Ross and Hobart. 

Though it is probably smaller than my lounge room, it certainly is Aladdin's cave for yarn lovers, especially weavers, spinners, dyers and felters. Above is a selection of yarn dyes.

Colourful roving and hand spun. 

(and beautiful ancient floor boards)

Gorgeous silks among the woollier yarns.

I bought this silk mix for my mother. Rich vibrant golden colours.

and these sea greens for me! 

But what I was most excited to see was the "wild yarns". Hand spun merino with possum and wallaby fur, bound together with a fine silk thread. So soft and warm.

This is knitting up beautifully into a cowl for Craig when he is on the bike.

Pattern here on Ravelry

(The beautiful stitch markers were a thank you gift from one of the ladies on the bus. So beautiful)

And a hank of Jenmark Alpaca, a local alpaca fleece yarn grown just north of Hobart.

So soft and luxurious. I haven't got a project in mind yet but I just had to have it.

And more unique Tasmanian knitting needles from Tasmanian Forest Beads, made from Tas oak with Huon pine, myrtle and eucalypt burl. The larger ones look like horizontal scrub knobs.

Plenty of great gifts for knitters here!

Again we would like to thank Rowena for specially opening and for the goodies she gave us for our gift bags too. Such a unique little shop and if you can't get to Tasmania to visit it then check out her facebook page here or her site here

The tour was deemed great fun and we are planning to do another in autumn next year. This time we will travel the north west way probably late April early May. Vogue Knitting tours, eat your heart out!