Dedicated knitters can get their kick for free at Bendigo's CraftAlive, with free yarn at one stall.
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Stallholder Debbie Weston is giving away hundreds of kilograms of wool as part of a drive to re-home the useful product. She found the two huge industrial bales available for free on a recycling website.
Mrs Weston couldn't see the useful product go to waste. Since then she's been giving wool away to all comers, and using it in her own weaving.
The yarn is "a big spaghetti pile" as it is. Mrs Weston is welcoming comers to her CraftAlive stall to take as much as they want.
It can be crocheted, knitted, and more. Mrs Weston knows from experience that it makes a beautiful blanket. The wool is a waste product from carpet manufacture.
Mrs Weston is running classes about how to treat the wool from the bales to make it workable.
"It's a process where you've got to give it some love and you'll get this beautiful yarn back," she said.
"It's such a warm produce, blankets are fantastic, it can dye really easily. I've tested the product so see how to get it to its optimal colour and softness."
Mrs Weston's drive to reuse comes from being a single mum 20 years ago, trying to put herself through university.
Studying product design, she couldn't afford gold for the jewellery based element. So, she just went out and found things.
Now Mrs Weston sees reclamation as a circle that goes around, preventing waste going to landfill.
The wool she is giving away is already processed, with energy used in its production, she said. Using it stops that going to waste.
"It's a circle that goes around, if you can stop that circle breaking, in the way of not letting it go to landfill and actually reusing it," Mrs Weston said.
"This wool is already processed, so there's already so much energy gone into the production of the wool ... you're basically also taking care of that previous process, in the sense that it's not going to waste as well."
Craft fair CraftAlive is running at the Prince of Wales Showground until June 16, from 9.30am to 4pm.
More information at: craftalive.com.au/locations/bendigo/
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