Knitting at Lucky Bean tomorrow! by guest blogger Annie

Just a quick reminder that we'll be knitting at Lucky Bean Cafe inside the old Borders at Sanbusco tomorrow from about 10am to noon. Everyone is welcome to come stitch, chat, and enjoy coffee, breakfast, or treats.

A Good Time Was Had by All by guest blogger Annie

I hope everyone who went to the Wool Festival enjoyed it as much as I did. It was a rocky start to the day with a minor car kerfluffle that reassigned the driving duties to Jana after we lost our chauffeur for the day. Jana did a fabulous job of keeping the those of us who are a bit "uncomfortable" on that road happy and calm and we arrived no worse for the wear and ready to shop.

After a brief stop at the carnival ride style porta potties (they weren't all leveled correctly and tended to rock and rock when entered) we headed to the Plain & Fancy booth to discover they have a new yarn this year - a wool/silk combination single ply and in all the beautiful colors they are known for. This is my favorite vendor and I  should have just headed to the Ravelry tent to knit at that point as I dispensed with my allotted funds there but I thought I should at least see everything else on offer.  I was relieved to see that there were no chocolate or multicolor bunnies for sale so was able to easily walk by the bunny vendor without a purchase.

Sheila had a mission for the day as she was looking for a few very specific fibers for what will certainly be a spectacular sweater so that added a little scavenger hunt style challenge to our browsing. We admired the many dogs who came out to entertain us and queried strangers about the patterns/yarns for the sweaters they were wearing. It was a much cooler day than it has been in the last few years at Taos and I was delighted to see so many sweaters and shawls which I always find so exciting and damaging to my Ravelry queue! Everyone enjoyed the breakfast burritos on offer and some of those wonderful smelling roasted almonds.

Jana came well prepared with coupons to Bisou Basin for us all so we felt obligated to make at least a small purchase there - can't let a coupon go to waste! Next in line was the Elsa Wool booth which is so dangerous and but their yarn is just too yummy to resist.

We enjoyed running into to so many LGY knitters and getting to see everyone's purchases. I think I've been in a bit of a funk with my knitting lately and this event was just the thing to bring back my enthusiasm. I've got at least a dozen new projects I'm excited to get on the needles and many more ideas of things to come. If only they knit up as fast as I can think of them!

Big thanks to Jana for taking care of us and delivering us to the alter of wool and home again.  If I've figured it out below you can see just how much fun we had by the view of Jana's car and a picture of Harry Potter the Corgi.

Many of you may have headed south this weekend for the Balloon Fiesta and I hope that was wonderful too, it's on again next weekend as well so maybe I'll get to go!. In  town next weekend we'll be knitting at Lucky Bean Cafe on Saturday form 10am -noonish and the Quilt Guild show is Sat & Sun at the County Fair Grounds on Rodeo Road. Hope you all have a great week.

Taos Wool Festival Approaches

by guest blogger Jana

A few years ago my book group had “travel” as a theme for our Christmas party potluck – we were each to talk about our favorite place we’ve traveled. Now, I’m not interested in travelling very much; my idea of heaven is sitting in my rocking chair at home with one cat in my lap and the other next to me, knitting or reading and having a cup of tea, with Van Morrison on the stereo and lots of tweetybirds at the feeders just outside the window. But since I had to say something at the party, I talked about my favorite day of the year, which does involve some travel – at least I have to spend about 3 hours in a car that day and put on shoes and leave my house and everything. I told them about the Taos Wool Festival.

The first full weekend of every October, fiber fanatics of all sorts meet at the lovely Kit Carson Park in the equally lovely town of Taos. Booths full of yarn, fiber, spinning wheels, notions, and bunnies ring the park and the interior holds food booths, tents for Ravelry get-togethers, workshops, and other fun stuff. The air is always crisp, the leaves are turning, and the whole place is packed to the gills with my people.

When I told my book group about the festival, I brought a purchase I made there many years ago: 28 yards of curly karakul sheep wool hand-dyed in oranges and pinks. It’s something I’ll likely never use in a project, but I keep it around because for me it represents the essence of possibility. That’s what yarn is to me, and that’s why I love the wool festival. 

So maybe I’ll see you there. Just don’t get between me and the Plain and Fancy booth.