Young at Heart

Sharon, Spidey and I went to Young on Saturday for a meeting of the SnB clans.

Entirely wonderful from the company to the stash enhancement opportunities at The Wool Room Country Store in Young. It is EVERYTHING you'd want a local wool shop to be.

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After bribing Sharon's dogs (Patrick, Maeve and Erin) with white chocolate to be good while we were gone and collecting Spidey, we hit the road. We used the journey to introduce Sharon to Brenda Dayne's Cast-On podcast.

Sharon managed to ignore my "look, there's a Vinnies" at several small towns en route and the "ooh, they've got a market on this morning" at Booroowa. By doing so we made Young in about 2 hours - plenty of time to hit the local wool shop - The Wool Room Country Store before meeting Sharon's Mum and her SnB cronies for lunch.

The Wool Room is EVERYTHING one could want in a local wool shop.

The owner, Kate Sevier, is knowledgeable, enthusiastic, welcoming, kind and generous. She also runs a sheep stud, so the woman knows her fibre.

You might want to check out the photos on Spidey's blog of our visit to The Wool Room. We spent about an hour in there fondling yarn, browsing the extensive range of patterns, comparing colours, brands, textures etc. Kate has commercial ranges (Patons, Cleckheaton and Shepherd, Jo Sharp etc.) as well as some locally spun and dyed woollen yarn and dyed sliver. Needles were the usual range. There is also natural fibre clothing and accessories throughout the store and it was with some difficulty I left behind some gorgeous shawls, felted bags and throws. Sharon picked up some fab cotton t-shirts and immediately changed into one.

I cannot rave enough about this shop or it's owner. Go, buy stuff from her. She will mail order and we are now on the mailing list for special events and workshops and stuff. As Arnie would say "I'll be back."

Next stop was our lunch with Sharon's mum and her SnB cronies. Edith started the SnB when Sharon told her about how much fun ours is. The ladies meet at JD's Jam Factory every Wednesday morning. The women were utterly delightful, and I only hope I can remember their names. I was enchanted from the first moment when Betty handed us each a Sean Sheep pattern book she'd picked up at the local Salvos for 20c. Gotta love a group who welcomes me withop-shop gifts! Then there was Winona who used to breed Westies - so she won me over pretty quickly, too. There was my name twin and Patty and Margaret and Marie x 2 and Ann as well, I think. There was the woman who brought in a laundry basket containing a gorgeous baby layette and other baby stuff she had made. So very pretty and so very skilled.

Over what can only be described as very average food, we shared patterns and tips and giggles and jokes. We were made to feel like welcome friends and it was a blast.

Spidey and I have requests for patterns and Ms Spider has converted at least one more knitter to the secret society of sock knitters. We're invited to return. Edith also made a contribution to the swaps basket - get in quick.

Our third major stop was to Richens for cherries. We were advised this was the best place to go, so away we went. There are photos but Blogger is refusing to play.

Here I displayed a self-restraint not evident at the Wool Room earlier. I bought only the required 4 cases of cherries (one was for me the others were requests from family and friends) and a couple of better-than-Cherry-Ripe chocolates. I lugged the 20k of cherries to the car and Sharon took her Cherry Wine and small box of cherries to the car. Spidey, however, had the services of yet another sherpa to transport her box of cherries and bottle of cherry port the 10m to the car. The woman is a sherpa magnet. (Funnier if you could see the photo).

Home via Murrumburrah where we made a recommended stop at the Whichcraft & Coffee Cottage in Albury Street. A whole historic house crammed full of local craft goods and a small tea room. Some good crafty stuff, some not so good. It's staffed by volunteers and was opened n 1971 to stimulate interest in the town and district in both tourism and craft. Well worth a visit.

It was in the tea shop part that Spidey revealed a previously hidden prediliction for crime. While we waited for our scones and tea, she spied on display on a high shelf, several items of spinning equipement. There was a spinning wheel, a yarn swift (upside down but still recognisable), hand carders, some bobbins and a DRUM CARDER.

"Psst", Spidey hissed at me from the side of her mouth, her excitement only betrayed by the slightest trembling of the hands, "you create a distraction and I'll nick the drum carder." Furtively I surveyed the room: no staff in evidence, a direct route to the door and a ready supply of sturdy chairs to climb to reach the shelf. A tic began in Spidey's left eye and the trembling of her hands became more noticeable.

"OK," I assented. "Sharon, you go start the getaway car and open the hatch, while I knock over that pile of towels with cr*cheted edges and maybe the hats cr*cheted from plastic shopping bags."

Just as I made my move, our waitress appeared with the refreshments. "Drat, foiled again", I muttered as the silence of the scones descended.