I haven’t done as much traveling as I would like, and there are still many destinations I
would like to visit such as Italy and New York among the top of my list.
I managed to visit one destination that I’ve pined for …and that is… the
Bendigo
Woollen Mills (BWM)! I’ve bought yarn from them online over
the years, but I’ve had my heart set on the famous “back room” filled with
discounted yarns.
Discount and
yarn ~ just music to my ears
.
Recently I discovered that my friends Tess and Julie also knit so what a great way to
spend Saturday (thank you Julie for driving two hours each way). It was also
the weekend of
The
Australia Sheep and Wool Show and I heard from a colleague that BWM
re-stock their back room during this weekend.
The sun was out and the sky was blue, Bendigo was truly glorious despite the
cold. We trawled through four thrift stores around the city, and if you're
looking for craft supplies, head to the
RSPCA
op shop at 98 Queen Street where the knitting needles are neatly wrapped and
buttons packaged in snap lock bags and sorted by colour ~ super organised!
After lunch at
The Good Loaf Sourdough Bakery, we headed to the BWM and
passed a
yarn bombed tram (regretfully I wasn't quick
enough to take a photo). Yarn prices online range from A$12 ~$17 per 200
gram ball, and the prices in the back room are not that much cheaper; but in
comparison, other pure wool yarns retail from around A$6 for 50 grams so BWM
yarns are very reasonable. I found a blue ball (bottom left in the photo
below) for A$10.50 but the tab doesn't indicate which range it's from, and the
rest of the balls are from the Luxury range at A$12.50 per ball from the main
shop. The yarn in the bags are an excellent
back room find. The two bags of mauve wool/alpaca blend cost A$12 per bag (200
grams), and the cream and marled grey priced at A$25 per bag (10 lots of 50
gram balls in a bag).
The back room also had some beautiful colours in 5 and 10 ply (from memory the
5 ply was around A$3 for 50 grams), baby wool, some cashmere/wool blend at A$6
per 50 grams but unfortunately I don't need a pack of 10. I was tempted
to buy more
Murano for another cozy blanket, but the price
remained at A$12 (and now I'm kicking myself ~ I should have bought it since I
was there). Anyway, I
sort of stuck to my wish list (with the
Luxury yarns anyway) and was under budget... so I
should have bought
more!
As we were kicked out of the BWM (which closes at 3pm on Saturdays), we managed
to fit in the
Undressed: 350 Years of Fashion in Underwear
exhibition at the
Bendigo Art Gallery. Despite its
restrictiveness, there were some beautiful corsets (one was hot pink from the
late 1890s!), lace negligees and one of my favourite pieces, a pale pink tulle
petticoat from the 1950s. They had some male undergarments on display as
well ~ not many pieces preserved since they were not kept clean,
ick!
A wonderful day at Bendigo, I would return in a heartbeat... sure is closer
than Italy and New York!
