Tuesday 17 July 2007

Spun alpaca

So my first 100g of alpaca fleece duly arrived a tad dirty with bits of hay etc in it.Started off slightly daunted as to proccess but good old Ashford Book of Spinning came to my rescue. Seemed to loose quite a bit of it after combing I reckon maybe 40/50%, don't know if this is correct. The lady at my Guild said just comb the ends but that just didn't remove enough mucky bits and when I opened it out to spin without combing I just got into a right old pickle. Anyway some photos of proccess.
So first of all my little niche of garden in the shade....birds singing in the tree behind me...alls well thus far.



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But preparation preparation is the key, so a lot of elbow work and cleaning up firstly.

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The beautiful soft clouds, apparently the lady at the Guild said that you should be able to blow the rolags off your hand and they should float down to the ground. Okeedokkeee.!





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Now spin, here is where at times I can get a bit impatient, I know I must try hard to go slow and sure but sometimes I just run for the bus...ops.

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Then the spun skein got its first wash, with trepidation in it went then slowly oh so slowly lifted it in and out a couple of times...didn't want it to start felting.
Changed water 3 times then all of a sudden a beautiful creamyness started to appear Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

In the airing place overnight to dry and then tentatively opened to door to gorgeous creamy white oh so soft fluffiness. 105 metres of baby alpaca.

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5 comments:

Liz said...

Oh, that is truly a beautiful picture of loveliness!

Anonymous said...

For being fairly new to spinning, I must say that you truly have a gift for it. Well done! (...said she with a hint of envy in her typing....)

Anonymous said...

Yep, that would be me in the previous comment...forgot my Blogger id...

a simple yarn

Put a Sock in it said...

This is lovely! It looks so soft and cuddly. Nice work.

BTW, you've been tagged! Check my blog if you'd like to take part. :)

Tusa said...

That looks wonderful.

So where in Worthing are you? I live there too.