I Love Yarn Day 2011!

October is a fiber rich month!  Not only is it chock full of Fall Festivals, it hosts both National Spinning and Weaving Week (Oct 3-7) and "I Love Yarn Day."  Having the day off work allowed me to actually spent my time elbow deep in fibery goodness.  Last week and today sported some pretty Fall weather, which meant spinning sessions on my front porch.

Having come back from 2 wonderful festivals, I have plenty of roving options to be working up.  I have my order in for good weather and an extended Fall season here in Missouri(at least on my days off).

 Left: an ounce of Angora/silk/mohair blend I bought at Toas, then plied with handspun ingeo                                                               Right: Alpaca/merino blend with added sari silk for color that I purchased from Ozark Carding Mill at Fiber Daze

I finally had success spinning something close to worsted (the alpaca/merino)!  An accomplishment given that I default to lace weight if I don't pay close attention.  I love how soft it turned out since I, for once, didn't strangle the single plies with overtwist.  Practice really does help - so does having good friends to mentor you...

Taos Wool Festival

Missouri meets New Mexico!  Several of us fiber fanatics made the flight to New Mexico for a week of classes (and shopping). 

Monday:
Arrived in Albuquerque - 159 miles of driving through some beautiful mountain country...this is NOT Missouri anymore!

Tuesday
Triad Dyeing Class

Triad Dyeing class taught by Peggy Doney from 100th Sheep.  This was a fantastic, very full day.  We started with 3 colors of dye...8 hours later we had a notebook full of 196 little snips of yarn all in different colors!  If you ever get a chance to take a class from Peggy, do.  We are already making plans!


Then after class we were encouraged to visit the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  Okay, I don't like heights!  But I went...

 The highlight to me was catching sight of a trio of Big Horn sheep at the canyon edge!

Wednesday:

Free day to go exploring and shopping!

Southwest Weaving

Wonderful displays of yarn sculptures, working weaving artists and of course lots of yarn to gawk at!

Then there was La Lana Wool...  Plant dyed natural fibers of all kinds.  Wonderful salespeople and too much yarn to choose from.  Check out the skeleton in the corner!!

I have already learned so much...and we have more classes to come....