Estes Park Wool Festival

Saturday dawned with a break in the monsoonal flow so I headed out to Estes Park Wool Festival. I stopped in Denver to pick up CatWithCats and she directed me out the scenic back way to Boulder.

Everyone was out taking advantage of the fair weather on their bicycles and with the their kayaks strapped to the top of their cars on the way to the Outdoor Sport event in Lyons.

We found animals everywhere at the Estes Park Fairgrounds. These little guys looked almost content to be photoed. They are Paco Vicunas and have wonderful fleece for yarn. There were several displays of hand knit items made from their fleece. So lovely for lace items.

And other animals being judged on how beautiful they were, then getting a long awaited "haircut". Some look so funny when they are shorn.

We shopped the vendors' barn and found people that we knew from other knitting events and knitters. We found Plain and Fancy Yarns from Texas, where Cat showed off her finished Taos Shawl that she had bought her yarn and pattern from them in Taos last October. It is lovely, check out her blog for the pictures.

We found the sheep artist, Conni Togel. She is amazing and you must go to her website here and check out her sense of humor, color and style.

We also found yak folks from Bijou Basin Ranch and think a field trip to their place in a possible thing to do this summer, as well as the cashmere goat folks from Guffey, Colorado. Their yarn has specks of shiny stuff in that gives it that little somepun, somepun.

After touring all the vendors we headed out to find lunch in downtown Estes. Then we went to the only yarn shop in Estes Park.

I finally had the opportunity to get into The Stitchin' Den in downtown Estes Park. We were greeted by the owner's two Westies. They lay at the door and greet everyone that comes in. The shop is on four levels. It has a little bit of everything for fiberholics and needleworkers alike. I especially liked the tree outside that was decorated with socks. What a great way to advertise a knitting shop.

All in all it was a wonderful day. We headed home just as the sky started getting darker and the rumbling was becoming more insistent. Ah, the weather in Colorado, wait one minute and it will change. I hope everyone had a great weekend!