Bella's Mittens

My daughter Saschia is a huge "Twilight" fan. Not my Twilight....the book and movie series. Saschia has all of the books...which she has read and re-read. She also has the books on tape, which she listens to while doing her homework. And of course she's anxiously awaiting the release of the second movie this coming Thanksgiving!! Well, I confess, me too!!! Thanks again to the very best online community ever.....Ravelry provided me with the perfect gift pattern. Thank You to Marielle Henault, who painstakingly put together the pattern for us and provided it for free. Bella's Mittens. Bella is the star of the popular vampire series, and these are a replica of the mittens that she wears in the first movie!! She's gonna love them!!! And I just CO on for another pair for me!!

Suri Dreams

I just finished another hug shrug as a Christmas gift for someone special! This great pattern came from Ravelry. Then I used the left over yarn (I bought an extra ball) for a pair of leg warmers. I made these with the hand-dyed Suri Dream, an Alpaca yarn from KnitPicks. This colorway is called "Tiramisu". Both projects used a total of 3 balls. Now, if you haven't tried this yarn yet, I have to say "Just Do It". It's fabulously light and soft. Not even a smidgeon of scratchy and it's just delightful to knit. Wearing it is like have an almost invisible shield of warm against your skin.

The legwarmers. I sewed on the tops of worn out thigh high stockings to give them stay-up power. And then the nylon part I tossed into my candle making supplies! Old nylons are the very best for polishing candles to give them a professional look. I'm always looking for ways to keep my winter layers looking sexy, and I think this works!!

New Members of the Stash

The last thing to mention about WF weekend is the great shopping! Needless to say, I ate from every food booth, and I purchased some of my favorite goat cheese. But then I shopped!!!

I bought two new fleeces....7 pounds plus. I bought a 3 plus pound black fleece and a 4 plus pound gray fleece. The gray one came from a beautiful sheep named Studmuffin. I couldn't resist.
Then the yarn. Yummy new members of the stash!! These yarns are all New Mexico Wool and Alpaca and Mohair blends. Most of these will go into next year's merchandise, but I did buy two skeins of delicious Alpaca Lace Weight in beautiful earthy browns for a special treat just for me!

(pictured left of the purple and above the orange)

I just sent this whole batch home with Twilight. She's going to make these skeins into cute little yarn cakes for me with her swift and ball winder. In trade?? Cookies. I made her one batch of peanut butter/choc. chip cookies for when she picked up the yarn, and she'll get another batch of some other kind upon completion of the yarn!! It's not just that she doesn't bake, and I don't have a ball winder....she knows how much motherly/sisterly love I put into my cookies!

Taos Wool Festival 2009 - the people

I haven't mentioned some of the coolest parts of the Fest which are the live music, the goat cheese stand, the lamb kabobs, the gyros and the almond stand that sells roasted almonds coated in toffee and cinnamon and sugar. The smell of them wafts through the entire grounds and you can't help but get a little paper bag full of the warm nuts!!! And then there are the 30 booths filled with vendors selling raw wool, yummy rovings, and delicious yarns!! But of course the very best is all of the people!! Now I didn't get pics of all of my good friends that came to visit the fest and my booth.....Jezz, Amber, Whitney, Liz, Gayle, Jan, Jesse, JB and numerous others.....but I did get pics of our local Ravelry group and our local knitting/spinning group!!!

This is what our good yarn husbands look like at the end of the long Fest weekend!! Both dressed in their beautiful handknit cabled sweaters.......and Thebes in his handknit kilt hose. These guys rock!!!

Taos Wool Festival 2009 - the contests

One of the exciting parts of the Wool Fest is the collection of contests. I entered into the "Bag/Container" competition. I decided to enter my green and purple entralac bag because people gave me really positive feedback on it, and it's the one bag that I planned on still using. I didn't really want to sell it. The competition is fierce!! The judging is pretty intense too. They are very thorough and give plenty of positive constructive criticism, which is nice to get from crafters who really know their stuff!! I won Second Place and got a red ribbon!!!

Twilight entered two contests. She entered her Fisherman Shrug that she knit from her own handspun New Mexican wool. She won Third place and recieved a white ribbon!!! She also entered two skeins of her handspun yarn into the spinners contest. They had three categories?? I think. She didn't win, but she got amazingly good feedback and was still thrilled to have entered yarn for the very first time!

Merce had a heck of a time!! She was trying to enter the contest early in the morning, but everytime she grabbed a skein to enter.....someone bought it out of her hands!! LOL But she did finally get one entered!! And it won the Grand Prize in the "Novelty Yarns" contest. She got a giant purple ribbon!!! She also entered one of her pieces into the "Wall Art" contest, and she won First Prize and a beautiful blue ribbon!!!

Taos Wool Festival 2009 - the booth

There is so much to say and so many pictures, that I'm going to break this up into 3 or 4 posts. I'll begin where every good story does!! In the beginning!! On Friday, Daniel and Gypsy (Merce's husband) went into town and set up our tent and tables for us. Everything was ready to go at 6am when Merce and I arrived on Saturday! It sure was a cold October morning! Here are the pictures of our booth just before the Festival got into full swing!!

This is Merce with all of her Ribbons from past years!!

The felt skull heads are one of the things that Merce is famous for. They sold out before the day was over!! Each one is unique, and some people collect one from every year.

Forest Fairies, WF Art

These are two wall pieces I did for the Taos Wool Festival. I'm really not liking this new little camera. The color is awful, I'll have to go back to using the good SLR. These little fairies made excellent smaller, lighthearted pieces to do inbetween the big heavy pieces. So much fun!!