Friday, June 08, 2012

Flagstaff Wool & Fiber Festival

This past weekend I got to attend my first local wool festival in Flagstaff with my knitting group. The trip is actually called the "Beat the Heat Yarn Tour"

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This is the main building of the Pioneer Museum

It was a nice trip up the mountains (about 1.5 hrs). I could so live in Flagstaff, surrounded my more mountains and just an awesome place :D

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Here are some cute sheep awaiting their turn to be bossed around (herded) by a dog.

Working Dog
Here he is at work. Very hard to photograph moving targets!

Some geese awaiting their herding turn.
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Alpaca's awaiting their turn for shearing.
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Here's Scout, I just love his coloring!
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Got to watch my friend be an alpaca whisperer and help with the shearing.
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Close up of pass # 1
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Then, I spied these guys.  Churro Sheep!  I just love this picture!
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I had never heard of  them until now.

Close up of one of them being sheared.
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I've never spun that fiber before, but soon I'll find out.  Not a soft as alpaca fleece, but very hardy and useful for outerwear and rugs.

Here's an actual chuck wagon
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So interesting.
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We were talking about just how it would have been to travel across the country in one of these.
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We had great weather and got to eat some good Greek food which I've been missing since we moved....almost 1 year ago.  Also got to spend the afternoon at Purl in the Pines where we hung out and knit and fondled lots of nice yarns. Spent the night eating pizza and knitting and chatting away.

What a great weekend with good friends :)

6 comments:

Sade said...

Well, in Spain there is a saying "no confundir churras con merinas" (do not mistake churro sheep with merino sheep) that basically means do not mistake two similar but not identical things.

Churras are mainly kept for meat and milk (cheese). The wool considered way to rough.

Merinas are kept for wool, and the meat is not that great apparently.

dianne said...

That looks like a fun place to visit! SO glad to hear you had a great weekend :-)

Kaye said...

Ha ha, love the name of your tour!
Hmm..I'm starting to think if I can give a toddler a haircut, I could probably shear a sheep/alpaca...

Anonymous said...

That is so COOL! Your pictures are great.

My aunt and uncle used to live in Flagstaff. I'm sorry I never got the chance to visit.

Jo said...

Sounds like fun! What did you buy? I'm very curious about that first photo - what are the barrels being towed behind the tractor?

Acornbud said...

Yes, what did you buy? What a beautiful day!