This post is being placed here in September 2022 and is effectively being migrated from Caroline’s old website, www.caracolina.com. She recently started sharing some of her old photos with me that were only on her hard drive and I’m going to be making an effort to post some of those posts here. Below is her original text.

Elaine and I loaded the spinning gear into the van with Rick’s help and took off to Amado right after an early breakfast. The festival was at the Amado Territorial Inn, which has guest rooms as well as a restaurant. About 10 years ago as it turned out, John, my mother, and I had dinner here while exploring the area. Today, we arrived at 8:30 AM as the vendors were setting up their booths in front of the inn. When I signed up for my classes I didn’t know that the vendors would only be there until 5 PM. Since I only had 15 minutes break between the classes I ended up not having enough time to shop! However, I made up for that by winning a huge basket with yarns, stitch markers, scissors with fob, and even a book. I’m still amazed!

The classes were great, the first one was lace spinning with Jill Holbrook. With the help of fellow-student Alexis, I managed to change the gear on my wheel to a higher ratio and spun my finest yarn yet, although it is still underspun in some areas. More practice is needed and I’m looking forward to it! During the afternoon class with Joyce Jaden, I wove my first basket since childhood (girl scouts, woot!). In between classes I ran around and took some hasty photos of some of the critters, sheep of various breeds, and alpacas. They even had shearing demonstrations! I think everyone had a great time at the Festival, the only bummer was that it was so short! I believe it went so well, though, that next year’s festival might be a 2-day affair. I’m definitely looking forward to it. Thanks, Southwest Fiber Arts Guild!