The first leg of our vacation has had a lot of fiber. Inspired by an article in Spin-Off Magazine (Fall 2007) by Anne Merrow, I have been exploring the Colorado Front Range area.
I started with a stop at Woolen Treasures in Loveland. It is a cute shop in a converted house. My apologies for not having a picture of it to show you. I did get a couple of skeins of Pagewood Farm's sock yarn. I needed it for the Mystic Light shawl KAL. 
Here is my shawl after completing chart 1. There will be five parts. I am liking it so far, but now I need another project to work on until the next chart comes out on Wednesday.
It is hard to photograph without being able to pin out the lace. It is a very pretty pattern edged with cables. I love lace and cables together.
We went over to see Susan at Red Barn Fiber Processing. She has yaks and llamas. She processes her own fibers and those of other local farmers. I had a hard time choosing from all the lovely fibers.
Soft mohair in a charcoal grey. (I have a lot of pictures; I'm making them small. Click on any image to see a larger version.)
Alpaca in a gorgeous, natural red brown color.
Yak! I knew I had to have some. It is not dehaired and has a bit of VM, but still pretty nice.
Llama in five colors. I have a fun idea for this.
Her animals are so cute!
Llamas, these are her girls.
Sir Ocelot - one of her llama studs looking at the camera. He has so much personality!
I love his coloring.
Yak! They are big animals. Not that you can really tell from this picture. More pictures on my Flickr.
Susan is moving to Nebraska very soon (within the month?). I hope it goes smoothly! She doesn't have a website, but you can reach her by email at redbarn1 @ juno.com (remove the spaces).
My next stop was the famous Shuttles, Spindles, & Skeins. It is huge! Knitting, spinning, weaving, whatever your fiber needs, they must have it.
They have a great selection of old issues of magazines. I found a bunch of Spin-Offs that I wanted plus a few books. (Don't remind me of the folly of traveling with so much paper.) I am excited about the new book from Maggie Casey, Start Spinning. A quick look at the book shows lots of pictures that show her methods clearly.
Then there was the Buffalo Gals Bison fiber. Can you say delicious?
I hope you aren't sick of naturally colored fiber. It seems to be my interest these days. That and lace. I haven't knit a sock in a while. Call me streaky.
Still a bit more fiber fun from Colorado for the next post.
Maia,I'm green with envy over here. You go on the best trips! Have fun chica.
Posted by: Necia | March 31, 2008 at 08:00 PM
Good to see you're taking a vacation from all that fiber work you've been doing for your business. ;)
Posted by: Kathleen Donohue | April 01, 2008 at 11:41 AM
wowza! looks like the perfect vacation to me!!!! do you guys like beer? the beautiful drive to fort collins from boulder is not too far. the belgian brewery is there-you know fat tire. well eons ago when i lived in denver they had a great little tasting room-very fun. but this was before they got big and famous you might want to google them and make sure they are still there. have a blast!!!! too bad skyloom fibers isn't there in denver anymore-it was the best! have fun and i look forward to reading about your travels!
Posted by: woolydaisy | April 01, 2008 at 04:48 PM
hi-me again-and if you are into beer-please check out the boulder brewing company for me-okay/ they have a killer IPA. thanks
Posted by: woolydaisy | April 01, 2008 at 04:50 PM
Maia, Since you are in Colorado, if you have time you should stop off at Bijou Basin Ranch! We produce yak fibers and yarns and are about 1 hour SE of Denver. Give us a call at 303-601-7544 and arrange a visit.
Posted by: Carl Koop | April 02, 2008 at 06:41 AM
You have a really great blog; I will be subscribing to it and checking back.
And thanks so much for the fine patterns, too.
Posted by: kay | April 03, 2008 at 07:08 AM
Looks like you had a ton of fun. Wish I had been there too! I hope you'll keep having fun and sharing it.
(You know, no matter how often I tell the comment form to remember my info it never does... You'd think I'd learn to give up wouldn't you?)
Posted by: Ronni | April 03, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Not sick of naturally colored fiber at all! I just scoured a gray fleece last night. I want charcoal gray, and it's lighter, but I may blend with some black alpaca. What do you think?
I'm jealous of all your fiber!
Posted by: jessie | April 06, 2008 at 03:36 AM