You know what they say. Everything old is new again. This is the story with knitting. There are knitting groups congregated in pubs all around the country. Our local library has a knitting group which meets every Thursday. But what makes it ‘on trend’ is the chunky wool that you can buy now.

A group of us stumbled upon the most gorgeous knitting shop with a wonderful name Knitting for the Soul in the seaside village of Thirroul, 1 hour south of Sydney.

‘Knitting for the Soul’ shop

And what made it extra special is the warmth of the owner, Dr. Terri Farrelly, a research consultant specialising in Aboriginal suicide and self-harm, who became smitten with hand knitting since it is a creative and artistic activity. After finding that it also proved to be an effective means of dealing with stress, she decided it was all too good to keep to herself and opened a shop.

Although none of us (a group of close school friends) had knitted for more than 20 years we took on the challenge of knitting a chunky rug using the chunky wool and needles sold at the shop.

Terri was so helpful in getting us off the starting point. Then, it was a good excuse to meet at each other’s place to knit, talk, and knit. If we had actually focused on knitting the rug we would have completed the rug in 2 hours. But this was our version of the book club. To enjoy each other’s company and do something fun together.

You can see my result. It was immensely satisfying. The wool I used was an American one called Loopy Mango (another wonderfully quirky name) which is a chunky merino yarn taken to the extreme. It’s gorgeous! And expensive with the Australian dollar diving southward. But there is good news.

Terri has just announced that she has recently joined forces with a Victorian mill with the purpose of producing an all-Australian extremely chunky yarn using high quality Australian alpaca and merino. They are planning to call  this wool “Pure Soul”. Another wonderfully evocative name.

In the meantime, check out her other wool yarns so that you can take up the wonderfully meditative activity over the winter period.  Her Finnish wool, Tjockt (swedish for ‘fat’) is made from Australian extra fine merino wool and processed in Finland and a bit cheaper than Loopy Mango.  Or put your name on her mailing list so that she can let you know when the Australian wool processed in Australia is ready.

She has an online site and can post almost anywhere!