Show Time

Yes, the Royal Adelaide Show has come to Adelaide, and I managed to build up enough flexi time to get a day off of work.
The main aim of the day was not to stuff our faces with sugar and hurl ourselves around on rides, but rather to enjoy the real show things, the stalls, the produce, the animals, and to hunt down some beautiful wool. I think we succeeded. My stash bag was full, and the ideas and inspirations just wouldn't stop. Money did eventually.
My first purchase was at an alpaca stall. Big bins full with skeins of alpaca yarn in 5, 8 & 12ply in cream, brown and pitch black. Some beautiful twists of cream and brown, huge skeins to make jumpers, some ready made scarves, jumpers and mittens. I fell in love with a small bag of black 8ply wool. It was the only bag of black wool, which was a pity as the wool smelt strongly of mothballs and mustiness. I hope it washes out because the wool is so soft and beautiful. When I went to pay for it the woman commented 'Oh that will make a lovely scarf.' To which I replied that it was going to make a lovely pair of socks.
Next stop was the Spinners and Weavers Guild, where I found several small skeins of an electric blue handspun wool. Each skein was small, so all up I think I got around 300g. Again 'that will make a lovely scarf.' No, this will be used to make a vest, I've got a pattern in mind. Leftovers from Knitty.com. It will just be plain, not striped though.
The hall this was in also had a lot of old fashioned machinery, sheep shearing, processing and a guy who talks about how to use many of these things, while surrounded by ducks, hens and a dog. Rather fascinating, but I am so glad I don't have to go through all of that for my wool.
We made our way though the craft entries for judging, and found the SACSOS stall (South Australian Coloured Sheep Owner's Society). Beautifully coloured wools, and after looking at the wool I realised this is where I got the wool I made my big thick beanie from. Almost considered getting some more of their chunky wool for those bed slippers I still haven't made. But I did find a nice fine skein of reddy brown wool that I realised would go well as an edging for my planned vest. Denise also found two balls of purple wool because it looked nice. (tut tut, buying wool without a plan, not like Denise at all!) Again the comment 'that will make a lovely scarf.' No, this will go with some other wool I've purchased to make a vest. And I pulled out the electric blue wool, and she marveled at the colour too.
One last place had balls of wool, and that was in the fashion hall, where a lot of clothing companies who mainly made woolen and cotton clothing were set up. There was a stall selling Marino wool clothing and a small stash of wool. I picked up a tightly wound skein of lace weight yarn. Yet again 'there's enough there to make a scarf.' And then she told me that the 80g skein was $28. I smiled nicely, put it down and walked away. It was veeeery nice though.
Anyway, you may have noticed a pattern developing here. Everyone thought that this 20ish couple had fallen down in the latest wave of knitters and only knew how to knit scarves!!! And talked as though scarves were the only thing to knit out of the most beautiful wool. This wool was sitting there waiting to be turned into something beautiful, something artistic and creative, something that would enhance its colour and characteristics. I was almost tempted to buy more to save it from being turned into metres of garter stitch. Denise and reason saved me. Next time though...
We visited more 'real' show things too. The kids farm barn is always a good visit. Piles of baby animals, adults making goo-goo noises, kids in strollers, pigeons mating. Snapped a couple of photos, though not of the pigeons. In the main pen they have sheep, goats, ducks and more baby chicks than you'd think natural. You can imagine that after 4 days the animals are getting tired of thousands of faces and these peeping chicks. One of the goats had sat down to rest, and the chicks decided that this was a good place to sit, one even making it up to his horn. I remember my chicks use to love perching on high things, shoulders and window sill a favourite.
But the best place for baby hens was in the Agriculture shed, where the agriculture schools and TAFEs had set up stalls with animals and other farming related things (wheat, bread, solar power, oysters). By far the most popular part was the shallow pen with hundreds of fluffy chicks and 4 students carefully handing chicks over the young kids (and the occasional adult) to hold. I picked up a little runt, who contently sat just under my chin. My chooks loved sitting next to a warm body when they were babies. Yes, they loved it under my top.
Denise's chick seemed a bit flighty at first, but quickly got comfortable, and soon seemed asleep in her hands, as you can see. We had to come back for a second visit that day.
We also spent time wandering around the stalls selling amazing new inventions that have no practical purpose, businesses trying to cram a whole shop into 4m², and lots of samples. We were having a great time, holding hands in public (not just so that I wouldn't lose Denise in the crowd), we walked past the Christadelphian stall, with their smoking volcano with two of every animal depicting the Garden of Eden, or God's Kingdom, or something bible related. The two extremely conservatively people looked at us then deliberately turned their backs on us. It wasn't just turning around to see something, it was deliberate. Once we got over the surprise, I cracked up laughing. Really, what else can you do? Had half a mind to go back and find out their explanation of tolerance from the Bible. Hmmm.