Surreal and Tangled in Brisbane

What better way to escape unemployment and cold weather than go North, to still more unemployment yet slightly better weather? And so to Brisbane I went.

Brisbane never really excited me to be honest. I thought it was far too small to call itself a city. It is really, but that’s actually a really nice thing. I had so much fun wandering around, going into the Gallery of Modern Art and seeing an exhibition on Surrealism, having lunch at the State Library of Queensland, basking in the sunshine by the river, and seeing Saturday markets.

Now for the two best things; first, the City Cat ferry service. I love the water, and this thing travels swift as an eagle. Perhaps that is an exaggeration, but if I could get to work every day like this? Baby I’d be a happy woman. I felt like a dog at a car window with its tongue flapping in the breeze. So much fun!

Second best thing; Only The Most Delicious Rocky Road Ever In The History Of The World. See it here, and scroll down to see the picture. I ate mine too fast to photograph it. Perfect marshmallows, perfect jelly, perfect coconut rough. I would gladly take up concubinage for the person who first created this stuff.

Oh! And how I could I forget. The knitting shop! Tangled Yarns was an absolute revelation. I am used to a shop in Sydney, fantastic yet a little fascist. But Tangled Yarns! She actually said I could sit on their lounges and leaf through their knitting books! Something I thought every major bookseller and newsagency had managed to ban. I sat! I browsed! I didn’t want to leave.

Such a beautiful light-filled shop it is too, and a really broad range of wool. I think that a lot of their yarns and books are imported from America. The brands they had on sale were ones I’d heard mention only on Ravelry; Malabrigo, Madeline Tosh, Berroco. It was like being in Wonderland. I couldn’t find the pattern I’d wanted, but it was from a magazine now four years old. The lady in the shop knew the pattern though; a veritable knitting Rain Man she was. The staff were lovely too; heck, everything was so darn lovely I just couldn’t leave without buying wool. Here it is!

I’d gone in with the intention of picking up some green wool and some purple wool. I have rather too much stuff on Ravelry in different shades of blue. I decided to vary my collection with this delicious green.

And this beautiful purple. No ideas yet for patterns, but I think the green might become a beret in time, and the purple I think would make a lovely infinity scarf.

Lastly I want to add this picture of a sculpture of sorts which was outside the Queensland Art Gallery. I just love it because it seems like a bird from afar, but when you get closer it looks very much like a brick kind of structure. I’m sure there’s a quilt to be made of it somehow.