Our story

The happy faces behind The Sock Knittery are Melanie and Richard Smit.

 In 2010 they touched down by plane in Darwin straight from The Netherlands, only to get on the next plane to Kununurra and drive many more hours to their new home: Halls Creek in the beautiful Kimberley (WA). On arrival, It was ‘only’ 40C hotter than the Netherlands! 

With a tiny general store and 4 hours to a ‘real’ supermarket, Melanie began to bake in her tiny unpractical kitchen and started to dream about having a little sweet treat market stall one day.. 

The impressive outback was the beginning of many adventures throughout Australia. Richard and Melanie survived Wolf Creek Crater and visited the Pinnacles. The white beaches and blue ocean of the Whitsundays were their next home. It was there on the market by the beach (see photo) they started a stall full of happiness with craft supplies and quirky crochet creations. 

After that they went from the red dirt of Tom Price in the Pilbara, to South Australia, near the hills of the Barossa Valley. 

Over the years they had repeatedly been told: you should go to Tasmania, you will fit right in, they are just like you. So moving to Tasmania they did… The dream of baking Dutch stroopwafels was still lingering and they decided to properly introduce Australians to the wonderful world of sweet Dutch treats. Over 7 years they build up their business ‘Big Bite Dutch Treats’ to an institution and won over 20 awards! Unfortunately, due to an ongoing health issue, they reluctantly had to close their beloved business.