When the beau and I headed off to Bendigo on Friday, I had done my research. I’d spent many virus-addled hours looking at patterns and calculating yarn quantities and realised there really wasn’t much I needed from Bendy. I’d worked out that I had yarn for most of the patterns. All I needed was 2 balls of black 4ply cotton, one of red 8ply cotton, and maybe enough Rustic for a jumper.

The chat on the Bendigo Woollen Mills Ravelry group had hinted that the back room was rather full. No point filling your basket with full price yarn when there might be a bargain to be had, so I headed straight for it.

And immediately grabbed some craft yarn. Normally I wouldn’t give it a second glance. But there’s a method of rug making that I’d like to try, and the instructions in my book specified ‘craft yarn’ for the warp. I hope this is what they mean.

Next I scored some 8ply cotton in white for about half price. This is for weaving hand towels (as is the red full-price ball in the pic). While I have some white already, it was too good a bargain to miss.

(I’d like to point out that up to this point the yarn is all for weaving. But after this the stash diet rules went out the window.)

First I found some of the new sock yarn in navy. It looks nice and smooshy, but came in a rather boring colour range of black, navy and brown/grey. Is the fact that it was in a bin in the doorway of the back room and not on their website a sign that they’re not going to keep making it?

I also bought some Cameo – a wool/angora mix that isn’t on their site and I think is discontinued. The colours were awful, so I bought natural so I can dye it. I also bought an undersize ball of Aran, so I can test swatch it ready for the new colourways coming out soon.

Then I found myself filling my basket with packets of yarn. It really is hard to resist when you’re holding a pack of ten balls – enough for a jumper – and you realise the whole thing is only going to cost you somewhere between $20 and $30.

It got a bit silly, so I set my basket down and culled back to two packets. First, lots of Classic 12ply in black for a Buttony jumper, which I’m planning to put a rainbow of coloured buttons on.

Then some 50/50 alpaca/wool blend 8ply – which doesn’t appear on the site either – for the 3-Hour Sweater.

Finally I surfaced from the back room and grabbed what I’d come there for, the red 8ply cotton, and this:

The black 4ply cotton to make the Cardigan with Lacy Edging from Crochet in No Time. 0h – and I also bought some plastic dpns.