Found it! Sticks & String. And a fun lot of more Aussie podcasts. Now I don't have to do my own especially because I don't sound Australian, do I?

I got my book on Lithuanian braids which are very colourful but look like they are woven out of extremely fine warp--thread-like almost. There is no way I can do an authentic replication but the design elements and colours are vibrant and interesting altho I will probably stay away from the swastikas, no matter how ancient the symbology.

I also meant to comment on how interesting His Majesty's Spanish Flock is.Apparently English sheeps' wool was washed on the sheeps' back before shearing and this techniques did not work with the Spanish sheep because of the heaviness of the grease they carried in their fleece. The Spanish washed the fleece in hot water after shearing and this added to the cost of preparing the wool for processing in England. Some comments on how the merinos were not used to the rich wet pastures around Windsor and suffered from various foot complaints because of this shows how they had been adapted to the high and harsher landscapes of Spain. I have just gotten to Sir Joseph Banks receiving the first wool from the merinos raised by Captain MacArthur in New South Wales (1801)and judging the rams' wool to be equivalent to the Spanish rams' fleece from the King's flock. His judgement was that the production of fine wool would be a good commodity for the new colony. Two hundred years later and our economy is tied to wool in both good and bad ways. The drought is having an adverse effect on the ability of wool-growers to maintain production and in some cases even maintain their breeding stock. From other viewpoints, we have been trying to grow wool in areas that are marginal in terms of agriculture and this is Mother Nature swatting us back into place (altho she should take it out on the rice and cotton growers as much as woolgrowers). I have also just read the Australian Bush Conservancy's report the numbers of feral animals removed from their reserves is staggering. Horses, camels, donkeys, cats, foxes, wild dogs in the thousands. The good news is that the threatened species bounce back (usually) when given protection from ferals