Friday 26 September 2008

A wee bit of wool.......

On my way home from Castlemaine earlier this week I visited all the Op shops, but it was a little disappointing in terms of what I found. I think Op shops are moving to another level somehow, two of them in a local town are now looking very up-market - one has moved to another shop with more space and is very neat and tidy, while the other has everything colour co-ordinated, as if a window dresser had planned it all, and neither now have lovely piles of stuff through which to fossick or treasures to find. There was an article in the paper yesterday about a woman who runs bus tours of Melbourne Op shops, while at the same time complaining that they are becoming more commercial and in competition with other vintage clothing shops, with fewer good pickings........it seems to me she is contributing to the problem...



This huge skein of wool made me smile, so I bought it for a couple of dollars. I think it is wool - as it does not melt when lit, and smells like my carpet if the fire spits an ember and it is scorched. The yarn is a bit coarse for a jumper - perhaps it was for carpet weaving.... but the ball weighs just over 1.1 kgs or more than 2 1/4 lbs. Don't ask me how I might use it - I have no idea, but I'm wondering if it would shrink and felt if knitted.........BTW, those are Maggie's toes on the top step - I did not notice them before, or else I would have cropped the photo.


This is another of my unknown Daffodil varieties, multi-petaled and very fragrant.


The gorgeous thing below is a wood anemone - Anemone nemorosa 'Robinsoniana" tiny, a vivid blue and happily spreading in a patch under some birch trees.



This one is a Paper White, just beginning to bloom now as other varieties are fading. It is also very fragrant.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes...here in the US it is the same. All the good shops are gone. It is hard to find one with bargains. Even antique shops have only expensive things. I envy you with Spring just arriving. We are in Autumn and soon snow will fly.
Hope that wool felts for you. It's a great bargain!

Carol said...

Missed your blog entries this last week. Am really enjoying your Spring flowers. Something we don't get in the tropics so I share those of others! Keep us posted with what you use that great ball of wool to make.

MargB said...

Your daffs are beautiful - my jonquils( the best I can do in the way of daffs in Brisbane) flowered in July and I am waiting for them to die down. The hyacinths, I bought flowering in a pot from Coles, died down and then shot again after the last cold(?) spell. go wonder on the magic of growing things!

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is carpet wool - we have tons of it in the Art room at school - for as long as I have been teaching those huge great rolls appear in art rooms - no one ever brings them in - I think they breed in the dark recesses of the store room!!!

Anonymous said...

I have a new hive of bees for you.

Picked them up last night and they appear to have settled in well in their new box.

Assuming they stay I'll arrange to spirit them up the road to you.

cheers

Ian