The alpaca fleece is dry and I am starting to card and spin it! My plan was to card it all, grade it by color, then spin, but my rolags (the rolls of carded fiber) are so fluffy that I don’t have room to store them like I did with the merino wool rolags. So I decided to spin as I go. If it were possible to spin clouds, I think this is how it would feel. The soft alpaca rolags are light and airy but are spinning up easily. I’m using my homemade top whorl spindle and planning for spinning everything as Z spun singles (as opposed to the opposite direction referred to as S). What am I planning for the finished yarn? A hat of course. I’ve read that alpaca doesn’t have the same elasticity as wool, so I think testing it on an item I am very comfortable making is a good start.

So excited! I’m getting into the alpaca fleece that I bought from a local alpaca farm over a month ago. I followed the instructions in Mary Egbert’s book “The Art of Washing Wool, Mohair, & Alpaca” and washed an armful of each color.

I used a capful of Amway LOC soap in the wash bowl, and let the fibers soak for a few minutes. Since alpaca fiber doesn’t have lanolin I didn’t have to be as diligent with keeping the temperature consistently hot. I used hot water from the tap for both the wash and the rinse. I gently squeezed out the soapy water before putting the fiber in the rinse bowl, let it sit, then gently squeezed out the rinse water and rolled the fiber in a towel to remove most of the water.

The alpaca fleeces seemed relatively clean to start, but as you can see in the picture of Sugar Plum’s fleece above, there was still a fair amount of dirt in there! Which is to be expected, since alpacas like rolling in dirt.

I bought a dark brown (Aimee’s), a fawn (Donnabella’s), and a cream (Sugar Plum’s) blanket fleece. The most dramatic difference was in Sugar Plum’s fleece wash. The cleaned fleece was nearly as white as my towel!

I installed a new drying rack in the bathroom over the tub. This pop out hanging tray system can have six layers! Lots of space for drying fiber! After washing and rinsing, I put all my fiber here to dry. Carding comes next!

Of alpaca fleece, not black wool. Ha. There is an alpaca farm 20 minutes from here (we visited not long ago). I requested fiber and the owner contacted me and said she had some! So we went over and I selected three colors so I could experiment with color and spinning. So excited!! It is raw blanket (the fiber sheared from the back of the alpaca), and from animals whose fleece has won blue ribbons in competition. Yes, I know their names: Dawnabella, Sugar Plum, and Aimee. Squee. Interesting fact: alpaca fiber is not covered in lanolin, so I will wash it, but I don’t have to scour it like I would for wool or mohair (and worry about temperature getting too low and the lanolin redepositing on the fiber).

I have other projects to finish first, though, before I can play. #Motivation