Only in New Mexico

Only in New Mexico

This is Jim Baca's blog. He was Mayor of Albuquerque awhile back. I met him years ago at KOB-TV. As Mayor he was accessible by email and responded to my letter with grace, enthusiasm, and genuine interest.

He is still involved with the "city and government" side of life in Albuquerque so it will be good to read his blog and "keep up".

Thanks, Jim. :)

Thank you, Woman Obsessed.

I just read your blog and went to http://www.dukecityfix.com/. Thank you for putting it on your blog. I'll be reading it regularly. Cool!

I Found a Pic of One of My Dearest Friends

I found a picture of one of my dearest friends. I'm going to put it here. I love her, miss her, wish we lived closer. Hi, Darlin'!

Fiber & Burrito Trek Continued.

The winding road from Tres Piedras to Tierra Amarilla is really spectacular. There are some gorgeous little folds and valleys tucked back into the canyons. What a great place to retire. A great house, a lot of firewood, lots of fiber projects to do; what a way to spend the winter.Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Tierra Wools is actually in Los Ojos. At the junction of the Tres Piedras road and TA road coming from the south [And watch it - it sneaks up fast to a stop sign!], you turn north and then watch on the left for the turn to Los Ojos.

The Wool and Weaving showroom is on the south side of the road just after the little store. It's a big old building with a wonderful space for a showroom for the handwoven rugs and goods. There is yarn, and some roving, and unprocessed wool for sale. I found some leftover yarns in a big basket and bought a bunch for accents in hats or whatever.

Scrap wool for sale from Tierra Wools in Tierra Amarilla, NM. This shows a range of the colors (not all included here) they can get with natural dyes.

In another room in the front of the building is a large spinning wheel and I'm not sure what else. I was focused on the wheel. Olivia showed me how to spin using that wheel.

In the back of the building are the other rooms : the one with at least eight looms with several rugs in various stages. Big looms, too. Beyond that are the dye room and washing room. The washing room has a big machine with gears and motors and sluices. It wasn't running, but it'd be fun to see sometime. The dye room had skeins of dyed yarn everywhere and jars of plants and cochineal bugs and black walnuts (I had no Clue what those were!) for making the dyes that they use.

It was a really fun place and we were welcome to poke around as long as we liked. It would be fun to go up sometime when all the processes are being demonstrated.I got some raw fleece as well - do I really know what to do with it? NO. Did that stop me?? NO, No, and not a chance!!!


This is some raw churro (breed) from Tierra Wools. My "inspectors" took over for a few minutes.More pics below. 

Ok. So I also bought some roving that was labelled for felting but it's really beautiful. See?


More later.

My TB called again today!

I just talked to my brother who was standing in line at the passport place close to The Point Knitting Cafe' in New York. He's going to check it out since he's hungry. (heh, heh.)
Here's the address for the Point. http://www.thepointnyc.com

And Oh, Boy, all you Different Drummer fans. They are Moving!!!!! the new address is 5900 Anaheim, Suite A on July 25th. They'll be open on the 27th in the new digs. Hooray!!!

More on my Taos trip later today.

I'm a little blurry, but I feel that way too. Oh the smell of lanoline in the morning. 

Furball getting friendly with the Alpaca fleece :)

Checked from the outside. 

"Hmmmm." 

" Inspection begun. Ok, your turn." 

This is some raw churro (breed) from Tierra Wools. My "inspectors" took over for a few minutes. 

This roving was labelled for felting, not spinning but Olivia showed me that it spins just fine. In the showroom there's a fiber and yarn section. 

Scrap wool for sale from Tierra Wools in Tierra Amarilla, NM. This shows a range of the colors (not all included here) they can get with natural dyes. 

My Weekend Fiber Trip: Tierra Wools, and Taos for Fiber & Burritos

I took Friday the 8th off and went to Taos and Tierra Amarilla with my next door neighbor. She'd been telling me about these glorious burritos that can only be found at Mante's Chow Cart on the way into Taos. I'd been telling her about how I longed to go to Tierra Wools to see the weavers and spinners.

Well, whoo,hoo! It all fell into place to go on Friday. We left the 'Burque at 7:00am armed with coffee and stopped in Santa Fe to get convenience store junk-breakfast. Not wanting to take up burrito room, we opted to pig out sparingly because they were only another hour or so away.

The day couldn't have been more beautiful. We could see blue sky and hazy mountains due to the forest fire east of Taos. We had talked about stopping at the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center but we were so early that we decided to try on the way back.

We got to Taos about 9:00-ish and pulled in to Mante's. (gasp) Only breakfast burritos till 10:30. Ok - so breakfast burritos won't cut it. Has to be lunch.

On to Tierra Amarilla by way of the Tres Piedras road. You go north out of Taos and west across the Rio Grande Gorge. http://sangres.com/statenm/images/rggorge02/vtaosbridge05.jpg
As you travel past the Gorge, start looking to the right. Out in the distance you'll see Earthships built on the plains into the sides of little hills. http://www.earthship.org/imagegallery/galleries/Community/Greater%20World%20Earthship%20Community.jpeg

They really are a treat to see out there in the middle of what looks like nothing.

As you go through Tres Piedras, look to the north for the three biggest piles of rocks that account for its name. From there dense meadow and forest makes the ride over the mountain a real pleasure. It's very evident that the last few years have not been good to aspens and pinon trees with the pine bark beetle and whatever is killing the aspens.


MORE TO COME

Fuzziness but not much shrinkage. 

Bottom of bag - stitches are disappearing. 

CU of shrinking into felt and not so much stitch definition. 

Oop! Didn't wait... felting by hand.. Wheee! 

CU of stitch definition and 4 of 5 yarns used. 

Attempt #2 at showing how big the bag is. :) 

I tried to show how big the bag was before felting :) 

CU and kind of stuffed for depth and dimension. 

Finished French Market Bag ready to felt. Waiting to use friend's washer. 

The newest "grown-up" member of the Saturday knitting group. 

The cake. Yum. 

This is another of my son's friends, Nate, and Ms. Diana our hostess, Sean's mom. GREAT FOOD and wonderful conversation. 

My children- hiding from the camera and making weird faces!!! and their friends - Sean who's actually looking at the camera, it's his family's barbeque. Juliana, Sean's GF, and Minnie in the back playing guitar. 

Here is Felix's mama who started knitting in earnest while Felix was "under construction." 

Felix - 3 months old our newest member in all ways! :-) 

Another member - our computer "guru"