You know I like quests. I’ve been on the British Yarn Quest and the Trouser Quest, but I didn’t even know I was on this particular quest till I finished it.

I have submitted something to the Australian Sheep and Wool Show! Yay, oh yah, oh yodel, yodel yay!

When my dear boy was about two, I learned to spin at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria. Our teacher encouraged us to enter the show and I decided I was going to.

First, I had to find a wheel.  That took some time as I couldn’t spend very much.  It was worth the wait because I met my lovely Esther. She is a Wendy upright, double drive wheel.  She was made in New Zealand in the seventies by the wheel maker Philip Poore.  She was sad and tired when I bought her and my dad brought her back to her beautiful self. Esther and I were in love. There was only one difficulty.  I had only two bobbins, which is difficult to spin with. You really need a minimum of three. Two for singles and one to ply with.

So began the hunt for another bobbin.  It was the amazing Joy Dove from the Guild who tracked it down for me and I picked it up from her in December. By January, I was pregnant and very ill with it.  By the time I stopped feeling sick, I had pelvic instability and couldn’t do the treadling part of spinning. By the end of the pregnancy, I was on crutches so not spinning wasn’t really important.

Another Show passed in the blur of night feeds, two children under four and the maelstrom of no time…then another year.

Last year, I was back to spinning again and almost finished the singles when I got pneumonia. This was a month before the submission due date. Needless to say, I missed that show too.

This year, I did it.  I slayed that dragon!  Admittedly, I missed the postage date, knitted right up until the last second and drove four hours to submit it. And it is definitely not perfect, but it was the best I could manage at the time.

But I still finished what I set out to do almost four years ago.  I even made some extras submissions with the commercial yarn I had left over from the Berthas.

Better go, I am off to the Show today.