Alpaca Madness

Two weeks ago I spent part of a day at the Estes Park Wool Market (Estes Park, CO). DH came along to take care of the kids and bring me DS for nursing as needed. We had arranged this months before DS was born so that I could experience this regional fiber extravaganza. I really appreciated DH's work to make it possible. And next year, I'll leave bottles -- it was challenging for both of us to be there, away from the comforts of home, with two kids who weren't particularly interested in being there.

But oh, those couple of hours I got to myself were fun! The Wool Market features a sheep wool tent; tents or barns devoted to sheep, goats, paco-vicunas, llamas, and possibly other species I'm forgetting; animal judging shows and fun events like the Llama Limbo and sheepdog demonstrations; and a giant tent with market stalls for yarn, fiber, spinning and knitting equipment, and other fiber-related treats. I didn't want to bring home a lot of bulk this year, since we're moving soon and my time for hobbies is pretty limited with an infant in my life, but I found a couple of beauties to bring home:



These are alpaca rovings from fiberinspirations.com, in beautiful natural colors, 4 oz. each. I hope to turn them into some kind of scarf or shawl, and perhaps a hat to match if there's enough. They're so snuggly soft!



I also brought home this 0.5-ounce spindle from woollydesigns.com. I had seen their stuff on the web, but one time trying this spindle in person was enough to sell me. It spins like a beautiful dream. The bent hook on top helps a lot -- why didn't I think of that? The cop of honey-alpaca singles has grown to about four times this much since this photo.



Hooray for small projects! It's much easier to spindle for 5-10 minutes between child-care and house-care duties than it is to get going on my spinning wheel (or write a blog entry...), mostly because the spindle is portable. DS even likes watching it for short periods. Think he'll be a Fiber Boy?