Saturday I made a pilgrimage to the Mountain and Valley Fiber Arts Festival because this year it was held in Durango, Colorado which is very close to where I live. This festival used to be Taos Wool Festival* and there were a lot of political things that happened when they left Taos for Santa Fe. I won’t get into any of that, but I will say that I enjoyed the Durango iteration of this festival much more than the one I was at in Santa Fe in 2024. That probably had to do mostly with how hot and dusty it was in Santa Fe the day I went and that I totally missed the fleece judging and all animals that year by going on Sunday and not Saturday.
Fleece judging
The main thing I love about a fiber festival is the fleece judging. This being a small festival, the judging was slated for just two hours. If you’ve seen my visits to Estes Park Wool Festival, you know that those go on for two days and I’m liable to sit there for many hours to learn all I can from the judge.
The judge at MAVWA this year was Andrew Schafer. His knowledge of sheep is deep and he was judging the fleeces based on what a spinner would be looking for. I spent about an hour and a half listening to Andrew judge all the sheep fleeces, about half of which where churro.
Andrew Schafer judging the fleeces at Mountain and Valley Fiber Arts Festival, 2026
The fleeces were fun to evaluate and the more I learn about spinning fleece and sheep, the more I like to test myself and guess which fleeces the judge is going to move to the front of the line.
Fleeces being judged at MAVWA Fiber Festival, Durango 2026
A close-up of one of the fleeces
The grand champion fleece was a colored churro lamb fleece and it was beautiful. I saw an image on social media that had the farmer of this fleece and now I can’t find it, so if you know who grew it, let me know and I’ll update this post! You can’t beat a lamb fleece for softness!
The fiber animals
I do love a good walk through the barn at a fiber festival. This festival historically hasn’t had many animals, even when it was in Taos. This year there were some churro sheep, two llamas, and two yaks on Saturday. I hear only the llamas remained on Sunday.
There were four churro sheep (I think they may all have been rams) from Kristen Mischker’s farm, Mesa Lamb and Wool. I visited them a few times and while standing by these two, kept hearing people ask why that sheep had four horns! Churro sheep often do is the answer.
Churro sheep from Mesa Lamb and Wool.
All four of these sheep were shorn on Saturday and I was able to see part of the sheering of the black ram. That sheep was so big! But look at those lovely colors!!
Churro ram from Mesa Lamb and Wool being shorn at the MAVWA Fiber Festival in Durango, CO
My parents arrived at the festival later on Saturday and reported that what I assume was the last sheep to be shorn was on the loose, mostly shorn, and being chased by someone with a lasso. Nothing like a little sheep drama!
And the llamas were back this year! I think these were the same friendly llamas that were greeting people in Santa Fe in 2024. I ran into a youngster as I was looking at them who proudly told me that she was able to lead them around in 2024. Way to make animals lovers out of kids!!
Llama at the Mountain and Valley Fiber Festival, 2026
The yaks were fun to see. The sign said they were representing the North American Yak Association (NAYAK). I had never seen a yak this close and it was fun to watch them for a bit. I was surprised that they were smaller than I’d imagined.
Yaks at the Mountain and Valley Fiber Festival in Durango, CO, October 2026
You can get a better sense of their size in this poor image with their handler.
People and vendors at Mountain and Valley Fiber Arts Festival
I talked to a lot of fiber people. I ran into Cindy of Arriola Sunshine Farm who you may remember from my visit to her churro flock in June of this year. She said they got their water back with the recent rain so there is enough for her flock. This farm is one of a handful of churro sheep farms in my county.
Another is Cedar Mesa Ranch in Dolores, CO run by Andrew and Kendra Schafer. They had a booth with a beautiful array of singles yarn from their flock. Kendra said they have about 90 sheep at the moment. Andrew was the fleece judge.
Cedar Mesa Ranch booth with a huge array of beautiful yarn in three weights from their churro sheep.
Tierra Wools was there and I enjoyed seeing the beautiful textiles and yarn they have for sale. Molly Manzanares and her husband Antonio have about 300 churro sheep and their yarn and other products come from that flock. She said they’re holding on, though this drought year was hard. If you’re ever in Chama, NM or anywhere near by, please go visit this wonderful shop. They have beautiful artwork but also all the raw materials you need to weave. They hold classes as well.
Tierra Wools’ booth, Molly Manzanares and her husband Antonio are laughing with some friends.
Rocky Mountain Natural Colored Sheep Breeders Association is one of my favorite booths. I always buy fleece from them at Estes Park Wool Festival and I was happy to see them in Durango. My favorite breeder, Robin Phillips, has reportedly retired from raising sheep, but there are many others out there bringing beautiful spinning fleeces to the public. I came away with a 19 ounces of rambouillet.
Eric Wilson is a big presence at my local yarn store, Southwest Farm to Yarn. His booth was fun and I heard from several people at the festival that his drop spindles are fantastic. I’m going to get my own the next time I’m in the shop in Cortez where they sell his tools and yarn. He also makes the most amazing rat figurines. They’re so funny, varied, and marvelous in construction. His business is called Woolabull. You can visit his website for much better pictures of his artwork!
Eric Wilson of Woolabull.
The rats of Woolabull
Some of my goodies from Mountain and Valley Fiber Arts Festival in Durango, 2026
There were so many booths that I didn’t take photos of. I bought a bunch of roving at The Fleece Factory. This business comes from LaSalle, CO on the front range. They always have Northern Lights roving which I love for drop spindle work for tapestry and this year they had paired it with solids so of course I had to purchase three more colorways. I’m sure you’ll see some of those on Patreon soon.
Robin’s Nest Fiber Arts from Arizona sent me home with a couple skeins of hand-dyed fingering yarn and new doodle deck from Pacific Knit Co. I love the idea of these stranded knitting pattern cards though I have yet to utilize the ones I got last year at the Wooly Buffalo in Indiana!
Eric Johnson of Slate Falls Press sent me home with some more enchanting cards of animals doing fibery things. He has a line of adorable kids books with great illustrations which I’ve purchased in the past.
It was definitely a riotous collection of vendors, animals, and a little bit of food. I enjoyed talking to many more vendors whom I didn’t purchase anything from, but might well one day! There was a good showing of native artists, farmers, dyers, and artists in all sorts of fiber mediums.
I hope next year for more food trucks since this part of Colorado has a lot of them. One that has gluten free options would be amazing. Also I’d love some chairs for the fleece judging (and shade!). It was clear that the festival coordinators did a monumental amount of work to bring this festival back and I’d say they did a fantastic job. I talked to a handful of non-fibery people who went and they all had a great time even without buying any yarn!
I also talked to quite a few tapestry students and people who know me from my book, blog, and Change the Shed show on YouTube. It is marvelous to meet people I know online in person!
Thank you for a great day Mountain and Valley Fiber Arts folk. You did a great job.
*This year was the fourth year of the Taos Wools Festival which is run by Joe Barry who owns Taos Wools in Arroyo Seco, just north of Taos. I believe he would agree with me when I say that he was disappointed to see the very popular Taos Wool Festival leave the town of Taos. It was an important income generator for local artists and losing that was difficult. So Joe took the name of his business, Taos Wools, and started his own festival. I taught at it for a couple years and hope to go back and teach again in the future. This year it was moved back to Red Willow park (formerly Kit Carson park) and I hear that it was fabulous. I was unable to travel to Taos this year to experience it, but I will be back! It is held on the same weekend as the MAVWA festival which was in Durango this year.