I’ve been dreaming recently. I love to travel. And I love yarn and fiber. So, a big chunk of my dreaming has been about fiber related travel.
At first, I thought I’d make a list of all the big yarn events. The list is HUGE and it seems to be growing each time I look at the Knitter’s Review Upcoming Events. I quickly realized that I was going to need more than one list and I would have to narrow down my choices.
So the first list I came up with was of the more famous events that I’d like to attend at some point. That list looked like this: Stitches West, Edinburgh Yarn Festival, DFW Fiber Fest, Estes Park Wool Market, Taos Wool Festival , Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and Rhinebeck.
That’s a pretty great list. The kind of list it will take me years to accomplish one at a time. So that wasn’t exactly the list I wanted after all. Instead, I needed a “What’s Actually Possible This Year” list. I needed to pay attention to dates (what can I manage without missing band concerts and parades and track meets and soccer games and competitions and other big events for the boys), cost (what can I manage without breaking the bank) and location (which events will get me west and south of my current location). You see, it turns out that location is actually the most important part of this for me at this stage of my life. The Southwestern parts of the United States are the places on this earth where I feel most like myself. Where I can breath deep and ground myself. Where I bloom. So since I won’t be moving back to the Southwest anytime soon (we’ve made the decision to stay put until both boys are through high school and after that we’ll likely keep this spot as home base for the four of us), I need to make a concerted effort to get back that direction as often as possible for everyone’s sanity.
After I reevaluated with those three things in mind, my list got shorter and I realized one big event a year is probably the most I want to try to manage. So here is my plan: Taos Wool Festival in October of 2019. And since I narrowed my list down to one item, I’m combining it with a fiber tour of the Upper Rio Grande and will be camping in the Ghost Ranch area. If you’re going to be there, please let me know!
Near Albuquerque. 
Near Albuquerque. 
Near Flagstaff.
It will be different from the Flagstaff and Albuquerque areas we just visited on our family road trip as you can tell from the difference in the above pictures. I’m really looking forward to it!
In addition, I’m hoping to find smaller events in the Arizona, New Mexico or Colorado areas that I can attend for a long weekend here and there over the next few years. So far this list includes Estes Park Wool Market, Fiber Fiesta, Bisbee Fiber Arts Retreat and Gathering, Arizona Fiber Arts Retreat and much closer to home Mitten School which will take place again in November of 2020 (color work isn’t actually my thing but I love learning new techniques and this would definitely be new to me). Right now I’m planning on Estes Park for June of 2020. If anyone has suggestions, please send them my way!
While I was at it, I got a little crazy and made a list of all the international places I would like to travel someplace that have great fiber events or destinations: Scotland, England, the British Isles, Iceland and the Aran Islands made the top of that list. While I was looking around I even found a Wool and Whiskey tour. I’m pretty sure I could convince the husband that one is an excellent idea for a trip. The thing is….we have two boys who are getting busier and busier with middle school and high school activities. So pulling them out of school for a long trip isn’t feasible and I’m not ready to go on big adventures like this without them. So this list will need to wait.
