A walk through the wool festival

A highlight to our trip to New Mexico last week had to be the Taos Wool Festival. These cute baby alpacas made me want to come home and start a herd of my own! They made the cutest low cooing sounds, too.
I'm not a good fact gatherer, so I didn't get the breed of these goats. But I recall someone saying they are some special hybrid breed for the length of their fleece. I could see me walking one of these down the city streets of my neighborhood! There's nothing in my covenants about raising goats, I'm pretty sure!
I had never seen a sheep shearing contest. I supposed speed was part of the criteria. The goat baa'd through the whole experience 
Here is a naked sheep my friends. I think I prefer the hand cutting method I have seen on video to the rip-roaring electric sheers that buzzed this poor baby.
Wool rugs of course were on every corner of every town we stopped. Those at the wool festival turned out to be some of the better ones we saw.
And the judges agreed with us. The rugs above were made by this award winning weaver.
And I was pleasantly surprised to see my friend and teacher Ruth Walker exhibiting there. She took first place in the household items division for her beautiful felted tea cozy. Go Ruth!
I would have liked to take home a few of these gems. Beautiful spindles of exotic woods with inlay decoration on the disc. I was too nervous to give one a spin to try it out.

But I did try these on for size. The softest woolen gloves and mittens you can imagine. And they are made by a family business who raises their own sheep, and spins and and knits their own goods and then sells them through venues such as the wool festival. I thought their display was the best in the show and their prices were good too.
So, I took home a pair of gloves! And I actually wore them that day since the temp was a chilly 42 when we arrived that morning. I had a great time there and wished all my fiber friends could have been there with me!