Tarantulas!

This weekend Mary and Phil, and I took the Tribeca on it's first road trip. I needed a break after the very successful IABC Southern Region Conference. We picked Taos because it happened to be the weekend of the Taos Wool Festival.

The drive down was spectacular because the Aspens were at their peak and the mountains were bright yellow. So beautiful.

We stayed with Mary and Phil's friends James and Becca. They have designed and built a house in a community that is completely off the grid just outside of Taos. It's called an Earthship and it's built using recyclable materials. It's a beautiful home. Here's James and Phil standing on the dome of the house.



The back wall of the house is entirely made of tires packed with sand. Absolutely backbreaking work! This is an Earthship in progress.



Some use aluminum cans and bottles



This is the view from James and Becca's front lawn. Not bad, huh?



I didn't get any photos of the inside of the house, but Mary and Phil have photos from a previous trip on their blog.

Because we were on a mesa, we saw a lot of tarantulas. They're harmless as long as you don't bother them.



It was a great experience to stay there and Becca and James were great hosts. Such a unique community.



We all went to the Wool Festival. So much wooly goodness!



I brought home some lovely fiber to knit and spin including some cashmere and merino/angora. Fun. But the best thing I got at the Wool Festival was from the Buffalo Gold booth. They had a bin full of matted buffalo fiber that was free to a good cat home. I want them to know that they have made Purl a very happy kitty. I had forgotten about it last night when I got home, but fortunately Purl doesn't mind digging through my suitcase and she found her new toy. It's not the cutest toy, but she loves it.



It was my first trip to Taos, but it definitely won't be my last!

I also received a wonderful swap package from Holly in New York last week. She spun this yarn for me:



And sent me lots of other goodies:


It was a fun swap to participate in. She loves bright colors like I do, so it was fun to pick out the fiber to spin for her. This was the fiber -



And apparently I didn't get a photo of the finished yarn. Let's just say it was a bit more retina burning than I expected it to be. Usually, the fiber color softens as it is spun. This was so saturated with color, it got brighter. I loved it, but I was nervous about what Holly would think of it. She received it this weekend and already has wound it in a ball and is ready to cast on for a pair of socks you can see from space. :)