We couldn’t have asked for a better day. We kept saying that over and over as three of us from the Taos Yarn Lovers knitting group traveled from Taos to the Pagosa Fiber Festival in Pagosa Springs, Colorado yesterday.
The sky was crystal blue punctuated by fluffy clouds that appeared to be painted onto that gorgeous blue background solely for our pleasure.
Snow capped mountains border the valleys through which we drove, and in many places there was still snow along the sides of the road. Sparkling streams of snow melt water ran through the brilliant spring greens of the valleys. It was a day on the edge of winter into spring where aspen were fully leafed in some spots and still winter bare in others. Spring calves and foals were abundant among the herds grazing in the valleys.
The Pagosa Fiber Festival is quite small compared to many–only about 30 venders. But that was part of its charm. All of the venders had quality products to choose from, and the lack of crowds made it easy to casually chat with the folks displaying their wares. It was extremely hard to narrow our choices of what to purchase.
I wanted to replenish my sock yarn stash, since I’ve used up all but two pairs’ worth of cotton for sports socks. I had lots to choose from.
Judy Ditmore of Interlacements, LLC has some truly passionate colorings in all of her yarns. While I was tempted by the crinkly rayon yarns among many others, I stuck to my plan to purchase sock yarn and picked out two skein pairs of Tiny Toes II. The teal, blue, burgundy, brown colorway is #218, and the blue, green, gray colorway is #403. Both are 100% superwash merino wool and machine washable.
I really enjoyed meeting and talking with Judy. We not only talked about the yarns, but about Ravelry and using the internet to promote yarns and share information about all things related to yarn and yarn lovers.
Another vendor with wonderful sock yarns was Crazy Monkey Creations. We had a lot of fun talking with the Christina Cooper who dyes the lovely colors of yarn hanging on the display rack. Christina graciously allowed me to take her picture while she was working at her spinning wheel.
Look at the yummy colors of sock yarn I got from her. I love the colorway names almost as much as the yarns.
Left to right: Grapefruit Diet, Amethyst Dreams, Greens of Summer, and Rushing Water. Aren’t those fabulous? These are all 100% superwash merino wool (Monkey Toes), except Greens of Summer (Panda Toes) which is 65% superwash merino, 35% rayon of bamboo, and are all machine washable and dryable.
I have some great sock knitting ahead of me. Now to pick out patterns that will show off these great colors.
Although it was terribly tempting I managed to resist buying any fibers for spinning. Meredith got some great ones, though, including an angora rabbit/wool blend and some tussah silk that just begs to be touched.
We lunched outside on the lawn at Victoria’s Reign which houses both an antique/gift shop and a lovely little cafe on the main street.
Before getting back in the car we walked down to Edelweiss Needlework Chalet which has a really nice selection of quilting, needlework, and knitting supplies.
On the way home we made a quick stop into Tierra Wools in Los Ojos, NM to see their magnificent handwoven rugs and to touch some more wool before returning to Taos.
Altogether a perfect day.
