The Melbourne Quilt and Craft Show

Well the title kinda gives it away. Saturday was spent in craft heaven as I wandered around the Melbourne Quilt and Craft Show. Friday evening there was a bit of panic as I realized that the tickets hadn't come through on the email as promised (life has been hectic recently, normally I would have picked this up much sooner!) but armed with our confirmation email we had no trouble getting in. In fact the lack of tickets raised not a single eyebrow so I wonder if there hadn't been some issues with the tickets.

Anyway....as soon as we got through the doors we raced to book in for the classes we were wanting to attend. That done we, Sandra (aka mum), Gina & myself, happily wandered up and down the aisles, grabbing a coffee when we got tired and spending money on all manner of crafts!

The show itself was huge with an emphasis on quilting (as the name suggests) but there was a wide variety of other crafts including my favorites, knitting and beading. I have no idea how it compares to other years as this is the first one I've attended but we managed to fill the entire day, arriving before 9am and leaving after 4pm!

I attended a class on the Magic Loop method...or knitting socks on one circular needle and have made some progress
I'm still not sure why I picked that colorway as it contains pink, however it is growing on me! I am rather excited about it all as I've tried socks before several times and had no luck with the DPNs....fingers crossed I can finally get a pair finished!

Aside from the sock class I spent a reasonable amount of money...less than I expected and more than Mr Wideblueyarn would have liked. Which is a nice compromise!
Above is a pic of the haul!! Pretty impressive I think! There was, in the end, only one ball of gorgeous kid mohair and lame yarn which will make me a very beautiful dark blue (and slightly sparkley) scarf. Of course there are various beads and findings that I picked up as well but as with the yarn I was very restrained and only bought those beads that sparked an idea or tied in with an existing project. Until our container arrives from the UK and we have sorted through the boxes we have in storage here I feel a little weird adding to my stashes.

Instead I decided to stretch myself by trying out some other crafts and so I bought a patch working kit (top right hand corner with the big red flower), under neath that next to the sock yarn is a very funky Christmas Cross stitch, and just under the sock yarn is an embellished silk scarf kit. this is possibly the most beautiful thing at the craft show and it makes the creative me salivate and want to ignore work and housework and people that want dinner made!

I think I will try to wait until we are in our own house and I can spread out a bit as this project does require some thought and I do need my sewing machine out of storage!!

I think I did pretty well out of this show!