Sunday, June 10, 2012

Wool Festival, and High Park Fire

Yesterday Dennis and I enjoyed the day by going to the annual Wool Festival in Estes Park Colorado. The temps down on the plains(where we live) were in the upper 90's(98 at our front gate) so it was nice to go 2000 feet higher elevation to the cooler temps in the 70's. It was a beautiful clear day. Here is a picture of me looking at some of the vendors products. The felted hats, scarves and lacy shawls seemed to be the real crowd drawers. Along with the beautifully and artfully hand dyed yarns. I got several good ideas for projects that I want to tackle, and really got me motivated to exercise my artistic side. I really had to restain myself, and only made two purchases. The 3 felted pieces to the right of the picture are a future felted flower that will embellish a tote bag that I felted. You can see the oyster shell button that will serve as the center of the flower. To the left of the picture is a 30 inch tail spun yarn, that I just loved the color of. I have taken a spinning class and learned how to do this back when I lived in Arizona. This will embellish as a hat band, a knitted, then fulled, rolled brim hat that I intend to make. I received the pattern from a gal from Wisconsin. So, I went away from the market with not having spent a lot of money, but my enthusiasm and to- do list are priceless! Some of the animals that are all fiber bearing that we encountered. This is a pen of Jacobs sheep and their lambs. This is a Jacobs ram, with 4 horns, and I do believe they can get up to 6 horns. Here is a gal grooming her Lincoln sheep for the show ring. HIGH PARK FIRE When we left the animal enclosures and first stepped outside, it felt like something out of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". As people were standing around taking pictures and gazing off to the east. A huge billowing cloud had been forming, unbeknownst to us up in Estes, it was the start of the High Park Fire that was burning 25 miles northwest of Fort Collins. So far as of this morning, 8000 acres have been burned, with temps in the 90's and humidity level or 5-10% and wind, the conditions for fire were right. We live 50 miles east of this fire and can see the smoke and smell the fire. Brings back memories of all the camp outs we have had over the years, the only thing missing are the s'mores. The predicted winds for this afternoon are to be in the 40's. We are praying that all two legged and four leggeds are OK up there. More later......................................................................

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