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.









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



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.!







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.


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

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.