The Last Days of our Trip Home From Baradine

The posts of our most recent trip, at the beginning of September, have really dragged out. I promise this is the last of them. 

After our visit to the Nundle Woollen Mill we kept on our way.  Our route this time was via Muswellbrook and the Bylong Valley.  We haven’t travelled that way since all the heavy rains in 2022, which caused quite a bit of damage to the road.  Hopefully, it would be much better by now.

Of course there was lots of lovely scenery along the way.

It was a bit nerve wracking crossing this very narrow bridge with the van in tow.

The area around Muswellbrook was all lush horse studs when we travelled this way as kids and in our early years of marriage.  Now it is all huge coal mines.

Once you get past that area there are the stunning rocky hills.

Our destination for the day was the Bylong Sports Ground. We have stayed here once before and it is a lovely quiet and pretty place to stop.  There was only one other van there on that night.

This was the view from the caravan door.  You can’t get much better than that.

There is a pretty stone church just over the fence, so of course we went and had a little explore. Let’s go for a walk.

We were intrigued by the rustic bell tower.  Of course Mick had to try it out.  We didn’t even think to have a look through the windows of the church.

As the afternoon was getting a little chilly we lit a fire and had a relaxing time before tea.

There were so many jet streams criss crossing the sky as the sun set.

In the morning we were visited by a very friendly magpie.  You can just see it at the bottom of the photo. No swooping by this one.  We think it is very used to campers giving it tit bits.

I had another quick wander around the church and it surrounding cemetery in the fresh morning light.

Now, the road condition…….  It wasn’t too bad for the first part……

But once we moved from the Muswellbrook council area to the Midwestern Council area the road deteriorated  significantly.  Patches on patches on patches.  We took it nice and slow.

Then it was the climb up the windy road to leave the beautiful valley.

There were loads of wattles at the top.

There were more jet streams as we drove along.

Our final stop before getting home was the little town of Kandos.  This former cement industry town was looking pretty with the spring blossoms.

It was so nice having the luxury of extending our Baradine trip this time, but it was also nice to get back home.

I wonder where our next caravan trip will be?  Your guess is as good as mine at the moment, but I’m sure we will come up with something.

Revisiting Nundle

The last time we were at Nundle was for Girls Day in the Country 2017, so it was about time we visited again, while travelling home from Baradine.

We stayed at the caravan park, as usual, and had a bit of a wander around.  Not a lot has changed.  

The main reason we were there this time was to visit the Nundle Woollen Mill.  Despite having been to Nundle several times, I had not seen the mill running, so we did the guided tour.  We actually timed it well, as all the machinery was running on that day, which isn’t always the case.

The Mill was only constructed in the early 2000s, but uses redundant vintage equipment, sourced from mills that have closed down.

Their wool is all sourced from a property in Tasmania and scoured in Geelong.  All the processes from then on are carried out at Nundle.

First, the fibres are separated into a lovely, light fluff, using an “Opener” or ‘Picker” dating back to 1916.

The next stage is the carder, which transforms that fluff into 100 strands of very fine fibre, which are all rolled onto a large tube. The machine dates from 1914 and is believed to be the only surviving example of this model left in the world.  This machine is only run on two days a week, so we were very lucky to see it in action.

Those long tubes are then loaded onto a spinning frame, which draws out the fibres further and gives them a twist to form single threads.  The machine dates from the early 1950s.  

The thread is wound onto bobbins.

The bobbins are then loaded onto a Dandy Rover, which plies three threads together to make 8 ply yarn.  It is wound onto larger bobbins.

Then the wool is made into shanks to go to the dye house.  Here the dyes are made up using tiny, exact amounts of dye and the wool immersed in the baths before then air drying.  They also have a small section for hand dyes, which are made using a bae marie found second hand on Facebook marketplace.

Once dyed, the hanks are loaded onto another machine (this one is a new to the mill modern machine) and wound onto cones.

Those cones are then loaded on yet another modern machine and the yarn wound into the balls that you purchase.  Each ball is individually weighed and then labelled, ready to sell.

In the mean time, they also well 24 ply wool, which is three 8 ply yarns plied together.

If you want really chunky yarn to make a blanket, you can buy 72 ply yarn, which is three 24 ply yarns plied together, using another smaller machine.

It is all fascinating to see in action.

Of course, there is a large retail section to the business, selling the wool that they process, as well as many other woollen items and other bits and bobs.  Did we make a purchase?  Of course we did.  I had purchased a long line cardy back in Girls Day in the Country days that has just about worn out, so I did find something to replace it, which has already seen quite a bit of wear.

The other purchase I made was some baby alpaca yarn.  Yes, I know, not their wool, but just what I wanted on this occasion.  I love the colour and can’t wait to start knitting it up.

Monday - Mend Day

Let’s just start this post by saying I hate mending and therefore have quite a pile that has been sitting around for who knows how long.  Far too long.

I decided that yesterday was the day to start to tackle it.

On top of the pile was a pair of Mick’s work trousers that had a hole in the knee.  There was a second pair the same, also with a hole.  I have a tub labeled “Mick’s Mending” which I had for his work trousers when he was working.  The only problem was that all that fabric to use for patches was green and his more recent trousers are blue.  Therefore, I sacrificed the more worn of these two to get some patching fabric.  That was one way to avoid sewing on a patch.

Next it was time to get out a machine to do said patching.  My machine does not have a free arm, so time to get out the best one for this job - my Singer Featherweight 222.  It has the tiniest free arm and works beautifully.  The only thing was that I had to pull out the instruction book to work out how to use it, as I so very rarely give it a run.  Every time I get it out I am reminded how lovely and quiet it is to use.  I really should use it more often.

A pair of jeans and a pair of PJs had their hems taken up as well, before I ran out of puff.  There is lots more to do, so maybe I will make next Monday a Mend Day too.  I’ll believe it when I see it.

Stitching Wishes for October

The weather is delightful and I am starting to feel a bit more like myself than I have for the last little while.  However, I am still going to keep my wishes (not goals) fairly simple and with a bit of luck there will be some bonus projects, like happened last month.

Firstly, Betty sent out the next fabrics for her group quilt.  The instructions were to make the prescribed block using the fabrics provided and select a contrast from the floral fabric.

No worries, I could quickly whip that up.  Job done……….then I read the instructions properly……. no green!  Blast!  Jack the Ripper to the rescue.  Oh, and we were to include an additional square of the contrast fabric and I had used a strip. Doh!  Lesson - read the instructions properly…..Well I had, but not when I went to actually make the block.

Here we go again.  Job done…..and sent off in the post this time.

It’s so nice to be able to tick something off nice and quickly.

Now to my other wishes.

The final number for the Chookshed Challenge is #3.  After all my swapping around during the year, this is:

“SASHIKO PROJECT - I have a couple of Sashiko panels that have been stitched.  It will be good to get at least one of them into a completed project.”

These are the two panels I am looking to play with.  I’m leaning towards the ribbon one.

I have a project in mind and bought this fabric while at the Braidwood Airing of the Quilts last November.  I’m thinking it will pair nicely with the ribbon panel to make a tote bag of some description.  I still have to decide on a pattern.  I think the design of the fabric will be too close to the scallop Sashiko panel to be effective.  I will have to come up with something else for that panel at some stage, and I also have a few other small motifs to use somewhere as well.  All in good time.  No pressure.

I don’t have anything on the go for Rainbow Scrap Challenge at the moment.  The colours for this month are brown and black.  Maybe nothing will happen.  Maybe it will.  Once again, no pressure.

I have made good progress on my knitted top.  It is looking very wonky here, so will need a good blocking once finished.  As it turns out, I will have oodles of yarn.  Up to just before the cream stripe only took two balls.  It is knitted very loosely, so I will definitely have to wear a cami underneath.  With a bit of luck this will be finished by the end of the month.  It is knitting up very quickly.  I have a few ends to weave in and need to work out what I am doing with a few stripes to transition to the cream yarn.  Hopefully, it will be something that I will wear.

Yesterday, I was at a bit of a loose end as to what to take to my stitching morning, so had a bit of a look in some project boxes and discovered where I had traced off a couple of the free patterns that Anni Downs provides each Christmas.  This one is from 2021 and I have 2022 traced off as well.  I have stitched 2023, but 2024 is still just the pattern.  There seems to be quite a few Christmas redwork pieces in the box, so I am thinking that at some stage they may be transformed into a Christmas quilt.  Not this year, but it would be nice to get at least this panel stitched.

You may notice that I have an embroidery hoop sitting with it.  I’ve never been comfortable using one, but decided to have a go when I stitched the little dog bookmark recently.  I just grabbed a small one that was earmarked to be used as part of a Christmas decoration.  Being so small, I didn’t mind it.  So, I thought I would have another go this time.  I even ratted around the drawers of odds and sods in my sewing room and found some cotton tape to wrap it, like Mum always told me to do.  I think the last time I would have used this tape was when making a lampshade in high school.  You never know what is squirrelled away and may come in handy one day.

We’ll see how much I end up achieving, but I am feeling inspired to get a wriggle on.