flower basket sample + yarn

we're keen on the rose trellis bag, so we tried knitting the pattern to create the swatch a couple of times. those are whopping 15mm or so needles that we picked up from the handspinners and weavers guild - methinks a lady and her husband got busy in a hardware store with chair feet rubbers and broomstick handles (we mean making knitting needles, you kinky lot!).
with any luck, nicky has got it sorted in the pattern design to accomodate the pattern, because the swatch was a tad trying to knit.
swatch complete and knitted to gauge, we were about to felt that too - and decided just to try a little tidge of the yarn with some hot water and detergent. reddish yarn = an old patons totem, which felts like the clappers, which makes us think that bendigo woollen mills colonial really is the way to go. the other cream yarn is of unknown origin - perhaps from mum - and it seems to be a machine washable. lucky we checked.

update: we've gone ahead and ordered the yarn from bendigo woollen mills - AUS$85 for the yarn + free postage is pretty good going. we've chosen to double the 12 ply cones of colonial (black, lightgreen for the trellis, cherry for the flowers, tartan for the leaves) from their new shadecard: