Did you attend the Estes Park Wool Festival?

Rebecca S wrote

on Jun 18, 2008 4:12 PM

 Just curious what other people found and bought at the Estes Park Wool festival.   Besides buying lots of  beautiful fiber to feed my spinning wheel,  I came home with an English Angora bunny (much to my husband's surprise) and my friend scored a used Ashford Traditional Wheel for a steal.  I also bought a set of Louet combs for over 40% off retail. 

What fun things did you come home with?

Stefanie Berganini wrote

on Jul 1, 2008 2:16 PM

I went for the first time and came back with my first two fleeces! One is a Shetland and one is a Jacob. I haven't started processing them yet, though...

All the animals were so cute. I'm glad my boyfriend put up with me dragging him around to look at/ take pictures of a million cute fuzzy animals while we were there!

I posted some pictures from my visit at www.soarblog.com if nyone is interested.

AimeeR wrote

on Aug 1, 2008 3:42 PM

 I love that festival!  I make my husband go with me every year.  This year I got some cream colored Cormo for a sweater for me, some dark gray Cormo for him, and some variegated wool from a nice fellow from eastern Texas.  I've never used variegated yarn before so I hope I like the effect when it's knitted up.

Last year I got a beautiful tan Cormo/Alpaca blend that's wonderfully soft.  I just finished knitting it into a raglan pullover.  Can you tell I like Cormo?  I also got some gorgeous gray mohair but I haven't yet done anything with it yet.  I'm thinking a little 50's style cardigan.

I'm thinking about learning to spin and my neighbor has some Alpacas and about 25 lbs of their fiber in her shed, mostly white and some tan.  Is Alpaca a bad idea to try to learn on?

Aimee in Denver

Rebecca S wrote

on Aug 18, 2008 3:42 PM

 Hi Aimee!

Alpaca is perfect to learn to spin on!  It drafts easily which helps in learning to spin! It is such a wonderful fiber and makes scrumptious yarn! 

I have not tried Cormo - I fondled plenty of it at the festival but didn't take the plunge in buying some.  Now I wish I had!

Rebecca