The Estes Park Wool Market is a whole different ball of yarn than the Taos Wool Festival, the main disparity being that in Estes, the animals are the star attraction and in Taos, the fiber products and tools fill that role. Also, in Taos, the festival is set up in a park and the vendors/displays are lined up in easy-up two-sided tents and, in Estes, the market is at the fairgrounds and almost everything is under canvas or roof with the exception of the arena that holds agility trials and animal shows.
Although the highlighted animal was the Bluefaced Lecestershire sheep, their numbers were few in comparison to the plethora of llamas, alpaca, and goats.
If we ever make that pipe dream move to Colorado, I want Spartacus to wear one of these. He can carry our equipment while we hike the Rockies together to our hearts content.
This guy is the flashiest llama I've ever seen. I wanted him to come home with me.
These guys are welcome, too. Colored angora goats, natural rosy to golden tan mohair. Yum. And no, we didn't bring so much as a rabbit with us. We're a little overwhelmed at present.
David, who joined us during the final weekend of our trip, made lots of friends.
Should I be jealous?
Robert wanted to bring home this little Pygora kid and was going to love it and take care of it and we weren't going to have to do anything, please, please, please, please, please! (Just like Albert Einstein, the Angora rabbit who now lives in our bathroom, necessitating the hurdle of a baby gate in order to take care of business.) We didn't bring him home either, though he was very cute.
Cashmere, anyone? You gotta wrestle this guy to get it, every day, with a wire brush on his belly.
Now, here's an alpaca of a different color. He made me crave Oreo cookies and cream yummy ice cream.
With handsome guys like this to guide us through the market, a good time was had by all. And I didn't spend a cent (this was mostly due to my husband by my side as we walked through the product tent).
Other than the photos from Stephen King's "The Shining"-inspiration, "The Stanley Hotel," which out-of-town David has on his computer, that is about it for Colorado.
For now, I'll keep hoping the high-altitude lung power used to blow on every one of these I could find did some good.
It looks like SO much fun. Definitely on my "bucket list"....
Posted by: Nancy K. | June 24, 2008 at 09:15 AM