alpaca anyone?

a few weeks ago i was given an amazing gift by my friend dianne: 11 huge bags full of alpaca fleece. it came from northwest alpacas here in oregon, and i’m pretty sure each bag is a full blanket worth (like, the entire alpaca), or close to it. it’s not cleaned, so i spent a dirty day emptying each bag, shaking out the fleece, picking out any too-dirty chunks, and putting it into clean bags. i really loved seeing/feeling how each blanket had a unique look and feel, like i’m sure the alpacas themselves each have a unique personality, even though they are all white in color.

i did some research and found that most/many spinners prefer to spin alpaca unwashed because, unlike sheep wool, alpaca has no lanolin that needs to be washed out, and since it’s such a slippery fiber, the dust actually makes it easier to spin. then you just wash it super well in yarn form. i spun up a small skein this way and it turned out awesome! (but i definitely recommend outdoor spinning if possible, it is dusty!)

i also spun up a single, with dyed wool blended into a few sections, turned out pretty nice:

i’ve dyed one chunk of the alpaca so far (orange!) but haven’t spun that yet. i want to dye more and make a striping yarn, should be cool…

sooo, the thing is, i have way more alpaca fleece than i could possibly spin up in the next decade, so i’m looking for swaps! i definitely want to keep a bunch of it for myself, and i’d like to spread the alpaca love as widely as possible (so, i’m not wanting one person/company to take the whole lot), and i don’t want to sell it for money since it was given to me as a gift (that would just feel wrong). so, swaps! i would love to trade fiber for fiber, but i’ll definitely be open to yarn, handmade items, supplies, books… just let me know what you want to trade.

leave comments or email me (leethalkoala at yahoo) with offers. yay swaps!

and, for non-spinning yarn lovers, i do indeed plan to spin up yarn to sell, so keep checking my yarn page for updates!