Bears

I am making these for Christmas yeah they are so much fun to do :) anyone wanting the crochet pattern just email me ok :) cintia_morrowind@yahoo.com

where my wool comes from

Here is a picture of  Jacobs sheep, a friends of mine in Oregon has a farm where I keep 4 sheep. I go 2-3 times a year to visit her and see the sheep, help give shots, and trim hooves, and if course clip the wool. She gives me 8-10 fleeces every year and I love being able to be a part of it all before I wash and spin and crochet it  :) and love having a nice large area for my 4 sheep's to run and be with their own kind.

who else is doing the spin de france?

oooh sounds like such fun cant wait to start! I will be spindling along with the bikers :)

Aw the end to My little Alpaca

Cool I am finally all done :) My little bag a of soft short raw alpaca is now a sweet clean skein of soft yarn :)

Aw now i need to ply it and make something yeah!

More Little Alpaca yarn

So now I am spinning the alpaca raw and unwashed or carded in the short draw it is surprisingly easy :) and I think "why have i not tried this before with alpaca"? I guess I have up till now always purchased washed raw alpaca. Humm Note to self.

 Ok so this goes on and on till I have my spindle full and my 1 oz is gone :) Yippee Skippie on to the washing!
Aw but first I will wind it off my spindle and onto my skein winder and leave it for a few days at a good tension. :)

 OK off the skein winder and all points tied to keep it from tangling while I wash it, aw how many yards do you think there are?

OK that's good and now on to the washing, I like to use Blue Wonder horse mane shampoo on Alpaca it cleans good but does not suds too much and is made to not mat the mane (felt it) so works well and gets it really clean :) plus it smells wonderful ~*~
OMG look at all the dirt wow it did not feel that dirty but you know Alpacas love to roll to scratch their backs and all so do pick up some dirt but mostly dust, and that can really muddy your wash water!

The real test is when you empty your washing container is there fine grit along the bottom? If so that's the dirt, and the dust made all the color in the water both are easy to get out of alpaca and i love the fact there is no grease in their fiber :) like is in wool (lanolin) OK second rinse and wow almost no dirt this time, but a few tiny bits of hay partials.

  Well one more rinse and this alpaca yarn will be really clean, and ready for hanging out to dry : )..............Aw ok ready to dry all hung out ..........next post will show my dried yarn and I will decide if I want to use it now or later and if I should ply it !

 Hope you all have a good day and if you have helpful ideas or comments don't hesitate to mail me I love getting info on fiber ~*~

My Little Raw Alpaca

This is the story of how my sweet, soft little alpaca yarn was made. I ordered it off E-bay,  from a very nice lady it came promptly and was very short stapled only 1.5 inches long and from a very young alpaca. I was cautious about felting it and since it was not very dirty and had almost no vm (ie hay etc) I decided to spin it raw, unwashed, and un-carded. Here is a pic of the fiber :) I just fluffed the fibers a bit with my fingers and started spinning it short draw. More to come in the next post :)