It was another market day. The Salamanca Market was walking distance from the ship, past these lovely bronze sculptures of sea life.
The market was booming, both with visitors and locals. There was everything you could hope for — prepared food, fruit and vegetables, crafts, music. It stretched several blocks, and felt like it went on forever.
We took a slight detour to the Salamanca Wool Shop, and revelled in the abundance of local yarns. I learned that the majority of yarn available for sale in both Australia and New Zealand is a larger size than I usually use. I knit my mittens, hats and toys out of sock yarn. I even sometimes make socks out of sock yarn.
On this trip, I had to open my mind to other possibilities. This Tasmanian yarn, from Tasmanian merino sheep, will become more than one hat once I pick some patterns. More truthfully, it will become hats after I’ve finished some long overdue projects.
I also learned to accept another palate. If there’s a ball of teal or blue-green yarn, it’ll almost always find its way into my stash. I currently have a project that needs remaking that requires petrel and orange-red. Though I brought home some yarns close to these colours, I didn’t find them in any of the Australian yarn stores that I visited.
Hobart itself was a remote coastal town. It had a decent sized city core with a large hospital. The land sloped up from the port, and drivers seemed tolerant, perhaps even respectful, of pedestrians. Since our goal was to visit the market, we didn’t venture far. We did, however, visit an interesting gelato store on a barge.
Van Diemans Land Creamery has a sour watermelon sorbet that was sour. Not sure how they flavoured it. My exploration ended at a taste. Anita chose their pepper berry & leatherwood, which they describe as a perfect balance of two of Tasmania’s most unique tastes; smooth and creamy with earthy, sweet aromatic balsamic scents and fresh notes of citrus fruits. She agreed it’s a unique flavour, saying vanilla came through for her.
As with much of Australia and New Zealand, the gluten free options (for Anita) outweighed the dairy free options (for me). That was a big surprise for me. I usually have more choice. Regardless, I didn’t starve and Anita enjoyed the various selections.
Juliette Knits 