OMG – I think I just saw the Utah border!!
I talked the hubs into going with me to the annual Salida Fiber Festival this past weekend! I know I went to one in April but besides that one, it’s been quite a while! I was very excited and was even happy to get up before 7:00 for the 3 1/2 hour drive – yes, 3 1/2 hours one way for a day trip to a fiber festival 😁. Our drive started off with a bit of rain and took us through a fog filled Denver but the weather cleared as we hit the beautiful forests along the drive and it was gorgeous in the small town of Salida! (Ed. Note – Yeah, little miss, I wanna turn around!!!!)
The hubs dropped me off and headed to a disc golf course outside of town and I started with the Fiber Art Exhibition in the old Steam Plant. The exhibition is open to the festival vendors or any fiber artist within 50 miles of Salida. There were some lovely fiber art pieces. My favorite was a felt artist who made 3 dimensional framed pictures of animals. Her booth was selling other pieces and were so interesting.
I found this piece interesting as well. The artist had taken different colored and textured patterns to make this portrait of a bison. The weaving on the right was also a favorite of mine! For someone who likes things to be organized, orderly and symmetrical, I am intrigued by art that doesn’t follow any rules, uses mixed medium and different textures and styles.
A River Runs through It!!
After the exhibition, I wandered over the demonstration tent where a local man was showing how to fly ties for fly fishing. I have my own rod but still haven’t gone fishing yet. One of the things that drew me to wanting to learn to fly fish (besides the movie A River Runs Through It) was tying my own flies. Watching the demonstration made me feel I could do it and definitely should try it! Our guide was using alpaca fleece as part of his fly bodies – it was cool!
Spending money like it grows on trees!!!!!!
After the demonstration, I started viewing the booths – there were several vendors that I’ve seen at other festivals or visited their shops like Cat Mountain Fiber Arts, Enchanted Fibers, Good Medicine Sheep Ranch, Greenwood Fibers, Phoenix Fiber Mill, and Taos Wools, among others. I discovered Six and Seven Fiber for the first time. These young women had beautifully hand-dyed yarn sets in soft, muted colors. They have very popular collections called Little Women, Anne of Green Gables and my favorite, Harry Potter! The yarn base names are all grain names like Alfalfa, Clover, Barley, Maize to name a few. It gives me such a nature loving feeling when I read them 😊. I purchased a sock set called Breakfast in Bed that I’ve already started a toe up sock. I’ve only knit one pair of toe up socks mainly because I didn’t like the toe cast on but with a little help from a friend (thanks, Lisa) I’m on my way! Note: I’m also using these tiny cabled square number 2 needles that I picked up in the first booth I shopped in!
And I couldn’t resist a collection of mini skeins called A Loveliness of Ladybugs. The colors seem to blend together beautifully and I see a new cowl in my future.
Remember, I spent about 6 months knitting almost exclusively on a sweater – I’m loving all the smaller AND quicker projects!
I’ll leave you with a couple of yarn bombing pictures from Salida!
Somehow I missed this post. Love all the art made with yarn. My favorite was the bison with such vibrant colors.