My trip to the Brisbane Show – EKKA

My Experience at the Brisbane Show – EKKA

For the last twenty-four years that I have lived in Brisbane, I have only been to the Brisbane Agriculture show once.  This is where the country comes to the city every August and known by locals as the EKKA.  This year I  thought it was high time that I went to it once again.

Upon entering the gates and seeing the crowds, the smell of the dagwood dogs and the strawberries and ice cream, it certainly made me feel like a little girl once again.  You see growing up in a farming town in New Zealand every year we would go the Agricultural and Pastoral show.  One of my favourite things to do was to go check out the hall that had all the cooking, sewing and knitting wares for judging.  This year was no exception as we wondered the halls and marvelled at the projects that everybody had put a lot of time and effort into.


Then it was onto the baby animal pavilion


and I was super excited to come across the wool in its rawest form.

I then came across the QLD Spinners and Weavers Fibre Artists and had fun squishing all the yarn, watching spinning in action. 
The highlight was seeing a skein of yarn being dyed with gum leaves and seeing the beautiful colours, depending on how long the skein was left in the water.


Believe it or not, but there is a skein of yarn in there amongst all the gum leaves.

Depending on how long you leave the yarn in the pot determines the colouring.  It was amazing to be shown that just by leaving in an hour longer each time you get such distinct changes in the colours.

I have been toying with the idea of having a go at dyeing my own yarn and seeing this in action has definitely inspired me to pursue this in the near future.  I am interested in the natural way of yarn dyeing so, with some continued research on this topic, I might just give it a go!

Share this post: