NZ week 4

 Only four days of my tour left.  We've driven all the way down the South Island to Queenstown and now are starting back up towards the west coast.  

In Kaikoura I found yarn for sale in one of the tourist shops and picked up a couple of skeins of NZ DK yarn in pretty blues.

Driving down the Canterbury Plains, I did spot a couple of nice looking patchwork and quilting shops out of the window but of course I can't get off the tour bus.  In Queenstown there was a Saturday arts and craft market near the lakeside on a lovely sunny day. There was actually a handspinner set up to sell skeins of handspun and the wheel was there - proprietor was absent temporarily.  There was also a man called Reynold Turner from Cromwell, who was selling little model houses assembled from real stone chunks to mimic the 19thC miners cottages in Arrowtown.  Another stall was selling the most wonderful handmade candles modelled in soy wax I think he said, with all kinds of kawaii details.

Today we visited Arrowtown, with wonderful autumnn colour in the trees. After enjoying my walk around the cute town, I went into the museum where I found a colourful textile exhibition by the COOTS (Central Otago Outside the Square!) which sounds like a fun and supportive local group. Several things caught my eye in the exhibition.

And in the gift shop, they had prints made from textile art designs by Sarah Auld in felt which were really cute.

In Wanaka, I came across Wools of Wanaka, which sells both knitting yarn and a variety of woollen clothing and goods.  Here I bought a shawl pattern called 'Dirty Lace' which looks quite fun, by Truly Myrtle a NZ designer,  It needs four skeins of sock yarn and they had some wonderful samples knitted up.  It's knit on the bias with simple lace patterns which look fun.