Camy here, just back from the Estes Park Wool Mart! It’s a sheep and wool festival held in Estes Park, Colorado, and I had a blast!I went with my friend Danica Favorite and her family. We got to see sheep, alpacas (the picture above), paco-vicunas (kind of like alpacas), angora goats (their fleece makes mohair yarn), angora rabbits, cashmere goats, yaks, llamas, and we even saw pictures of a pygora goat, a cross between a pygmy goat and an angora goat.
I also got to buy fleeces! I bought a pound of alpaca fleece in this rich lovely brown color and I bought an entire fleece of a black sheep (he was a cross between a Teeswater and a merino/CVM). I got to talk to the shepherd who is this really nice older lady who loves to tell stories about her sheep. She suggested the fleece I eventually bought after I told her that I was a beginning spinner, and what I wanted to use the fleece for, and how much I wanted to spend.
I will process the fleeces (the alpaca one probably won’t require much processing, to be honest, but the sheep one will) and spin them into yarn. I’ll be able to make yarn for a ton of stuff, including this one cardigan I want to make (it’s designed by Twinkle) where if I bought the yarn it would cost $80, but this way it will cost only about $30.
We had a lot of fun even though it was raining. The rain wasn’t too bad, just a steady drizzle, and there wasn’t much wind so it wasn’t too cold, either. But we all had muddy shoes and pants by the time we left the fairground.
I loved it! I hope to be able to go again!
Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Out now is her humorous contemporary romance novel, Single Sashimi, and her romantic suspense, Deadly Intent. She also runs the Story Sensei critique service. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels and ponders frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter YahooGroup for giveways!
3 comments:
Camy, I hope to hear stories from Danica about your adventure.
Since you are going this far to get closer to the source of your yarn are you thinking of raising sheep or alpacas? Now that would be an adventure and think of the story material.
This is sooo neat, Camy. Love the picture and your yarn idea. One day, I want to learn to knit!
My niece and her family raise sheep, so this really interested me. I have my great-great-grandmother's spinning wheel. It is big and probably belonged to her mother. It is made by hand and I defy any of my grandchildren to touch it.
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