Nan Bray
Nan raises 1200 superfine “Saxon” merinos just south of Oatlands, in the middle of Tasmania, and the wool that her sheep grow is turned into hand knitting yarn by a company in NZ—Design Spun. Her farming focus is on the ethical treatment of the animals and the landscape in which they graze. Her trademark in a production sense is a concept known as “nutritional wisdom”, in which sheep are given the opportunity to graze a wide diversity of native as well as exotic plants—and thereby learn about the nutritional and self-medicating benefits of different forages. Because nutritional wisdom is in part a learned behaviour—knowledge passed by mothers to their babies—Nan runs all the sheep in a single large mob, keeping all family groups together for their entire lifetimes. In order to foster the diversity of plants that this system relies on, Nan maintains a fairly low stocking rate, encouraging diversity through abundance.
Nan's beautiful, super-soft White Gum Wool yarn comes in 3 weights: 4-ply, 8-ply and a chunky bouclé. We are so proud to offer White Gum Wool as part of the Augustbird range. Browse our current in stock yarns below.
Check out Nan's website whitegumwool.com.au to learn more about White Gum Wool and keep up to date with what Nan is up to.
Sally Oakley
Sally Oakley aka Sallyravels lives in beautiful Tasmania with her lovely hubby and three kids.
A good deal of Sally's design inspiration comes from the natural environment. Fascinated by the history of our interaction with the earth and its seasons, Sally found in knitwear the perfect amalgamation of beauty and practicality.
Rebecca's colourways, paired with beautiful White Gum Wool, are Sally's favourite medium to work with. She and Rebecca share a love for fine tea, books, knitting and op-shopping.
Sally's beautiful knitting patterns can be purchased here.
Alicia Plummer
Alicia has been knitting seriously for years (after being taught as a child by her late grandmother, Shirley) and designing for a little over a year. Her style is decidedly East-Coast fresh, complimented by modern lines. She aims for casual-cozy.
As a stay at home mum and a homeschooler, Alicia considers herself to be very scatterbrained and messy. She loves to meet new and different people. Her favourite place to do that is the Plum Dandi group she has on Ravelry with Melissa Schaschwary, her best friend (& a very talented designer!).
Our Rich DK base is her favourite, in the Two Little Plums colourway.
Her favourite activities are miles of stockinette, hiking with her kids and having quiet time with the Bible. She loves to learn new things and is currently learning how to play basketball, as well as attempting to keep the house clean regularly. The vacuum is broken, so things aren't looking good...but there's always knitting!
Check out some of Alicia's beautiful patterns here.
Melissa Schaschwary
Melissa lives in the Midwest USA with her husband, her 2 little girls and 2 small dogs.
Melissa began designing in 2009 and has continued to enjoy the exciting, ever changing path her work has taken her on. She loves to incorporate hints of nature, romance and home into all of her pieces in the hopes of inspiring those who knit from her designs.
We are very lucky to have Melissa design some gorgeous patterns especially for Augustbird yarn.
Melissa's new website is dandiliongirldesigns.com
Georgie Nicolson
Georgie Nicolson started out designing knitting patterns for her barbie dolls when she was little, jotting down her ideas in a little note book. Now-a-days Georgie is all grown up and still scribbling down pattern notes and ideas on her ever faithful iPad. Georgie now also has one adventure bound husband and two adorable yet exuberantly messy and creative children.
A typical day for Georgie includes squeezing in a bit of knitting at the beach, in the park, while playing games with the kiddies, soothing and feeding those kiddies, on road trips, reading stories along with the daily domestic goddess duties.
Georgie’s patterns are beautifully written, her designs are classic, simple and gorgeous.
“I love simple clean lines, seamless knits, bold colours, beautiful yarn and the quick thrill of creating kids knits.”
Please take the time to check out Georgie’s website here. You can also find her pattern Gidday available for purchase here at Augustbird as well as some Tikki designed hand-knits.
Let customers speak for us
My most favourite, treasured, warmest pair of socks I own were lovingly knitted from this beautiful hand-dyed wool…. I absolutely live in them! The natural colour is gorgeous, the wool & silk blend is soft, so comfortable against my skin, & durable as it puts up with the friction of me walking around in my socks all the time. Usually I have to double-sock in the winter with all my other generic socks from the retail shops, but this single layer of wool doesn’t suffocate or bulk-up my feet, & it keeps them comfortably warm & toasty (& pretty) especially during these very chilly winter days, no more numb toes. This wool holds its shape & washes well. I love love love how the colour was achieved too, it’s a beautiful, delicate, earthy neutral. Thank-you so much Bec for sharing your creativity, passion & talent for others to enjoy x
I love a surprise! I received two beautiful skeins of yarn in my Fantail Mystery Bag. The yarn is so soft and gorgeous.
The two skeins are delightful and I will be making mittens for a friend with the blue on. I appreciated the greeting card that was included
I was lucky enough to nab an early skein of this base.
It is gorgeous.
The silk/merino is so soft with a beautiful drape.
The yarn has been spun with a high twist resulting in excellent stitch definition.
The stitches really do lay down beautifully next to each other.
The silk also takes up the dye beautifully as well and gives a great, almost textural interest, to the colour.
Beautiful to knit with!!
Got some of the new sock yarn and can’t believe how shiny and soft it is. As always Rebecca’s dyeing is beautiful and I cannot wait to a start my adventures in plastic free socks begin.
I got the first round of mystery bags and as always they did not disappoint. The wool is so beautiful, but when Rebecca uses her talent with colour it’s just phenomenal. Can’t wait to knit with it.
The yarn is gorgeous and so soft to touch - can’t wait to finish my socks
