Getting Ready....

My Suri fiber is dyed, and now in the process of becoming roving from my drum carder.  I have fiber everywhere!  It's going to take me FOREVER to clean all of the extra fluff off of my carder :)  I am going to card each color individually, and then spin.  I am saving my oranges to spin un carded and just fluffed.  I am gearing up for the Tour de Fleece.  And all of this alpaca fiber I have been hoarding is going to be spun.  I have Huacaya in  rose gray ( about 10 ounces or so), chocolate brown, white, a really pretty lighter brown color, and a beautiful gray.  I think I will be busy enough! In the pile of fiber in the picture, the green is the Suri I have already made into roving,  The rest is fiber that I have processed over the past couple of months.
I think I am crazy, but holy moley it's reaching intervention levels around here with all of the fiber, and I don't even own an Alpaca!!!

My team is Wonder Why Alpaca- Team of Wonder.  :)  Thanks Andrea for letting me join!  

Finished 1/2

Well I filled and then plyed 2 bobbins of the alpaca.  I just cannot get over how soft the fiber is.....I did notice after plying that I probably should have spun the singles a little tighter because they loosened quite a bit when I plyed the two together.  But I am still very happy.  First because my singles were thin enough to be plyed and actually look like yarn and not rope, and second because I took this fiber through almost the entire process- except the shearing part.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with the yarn once I finish the other half. I'm sure I will figure something out.

Dyeing and Spinning Alpaca

Today was another dye day, along with the dreaded grocery shopping, and a trip to my favorite store The Loft at the mall to pick up some really cute outfits for this awesome warm (read hot as heck) weather we have been having.  I'm really not complaining, we have been very lucky- knock on wood- to have really low humidity so far.  Once that starts, we will probably never get out of the pool.

But anywho, this is not a post to yak about the weather.  Today I FINALLY dyed up some of the alpaca that I have been processing.  After I cleaned it, I ran batts on my drum carder and then used a diz to pull off roving.  I ended up dyeing the batch using a super diluted red, pink and yellow.  I love how they merged together to create what I like to call a watercolor effect.  I pre drafted a small amount and spun it up.  OH MY GOODNESS- it spins like a DREAM!  Alpaca is awesome!!!  :) 

Well I am off to make a brownie chocolate sundae...YUM! See ya tomorrow for the details of the BATT GIVEAWAY!  :)

Hi I'm Kelly and I spin rope......:)

I am not going to give up!  Yesterday I went to a guild meeting and picked all of the wonderful spinners heads.  These ladies are spinning beautiful yarn!  We had a demonstration on Navajo Plying, it was really neat watching it!  All I do know is that if I decided to Navajo ply any of the "yarn" that I have made so far, it would then become rope.........I did get some questions answered about the settings for my wheel and now understand that I have had the brake set incorrectly, which has caused me to continue to over spin.  I also learned that I need to pre draft even more than I had been.  So today I am going to sit down and try to put into practice what I learned yesterday.  I did promise to bring my wheel to the next meeting ( so that alone will force me to practice so I don't embarrass myself)!  I also met a wonderful spinner and knitter who lives about 15 minutes from me!  She has offered to help me!  So all in all, yesterday was an awesome day for meeting new friends, and learning new things.
Also, Kimberly, of Woodland Hills Alpacas, sent me home with the prettiest rose gray alpaca fleece.  It is amazing and I cannot wait to clean it up and make something!  The Alpacas looked so silly with their pom-pom heads after their shearing and the stories about how they didn't recognize each other were so funny!

Here is a new bag I made yesterday, using these curly cotswold locks!  I'm trying to use all of this blue that I dyed up.....

My favorite kind of washing!

Today started early for me.  I'm an earlybird and love the quiet time I have in the morning while the rest of the family is sleeping- I seem to get tons done and don't feel too guilty for taking some me time.
 I decided to start washing some of the Alpaca fleece that I purchased when I went to the last Fiber Arts meeting.  I have sorted most of it and decided I want to try spinning some.....it still needed to be washed, so that's what I spent my morning doing.  When Alpaca is dry it has virtually no smell, but peeeewww, it had a VERY different smell when it was wet.  Now that it's dry, the smell has gone away, but it was kinda stinky! :)

I have about the same amount left to wash as I did wash today....but I think I have enough cleaned to get started.  Now to decide if I am going to mix it with some Merino or just spin it on its own.  Any suggestions out there?  I've decided not to dye this batch....maybe the next batch.

Spring colors everywhere.....

I started dyeing wool (merino, BFL, and polwarth) tencel, firestar and some alpaca yesterday when I came home from work.  It has now finished drying in the awesome Florida sun.  The colors remind me of Easter egg dyeing.  I want to make some fluffy spring batts and now I have some pretty spring colors to add to them.  Also last weekend I ended up buying approx. 3 lbs. of Alpaca fleece at a wonderful local farm.  I am almost finished picking it, and am going to spin it up.  I bought gray, white, a deep chocolate brown, and a wonderful carmel brown color.  I REALLY like the softness of this new to me fiber.  I was given a few predrafts of it last weekend to try spinning, I loved working with it and need to get the rest done so I can finish filling the spool.  Thanks for reading!
Kelly

Alpaca fiber- does it wet felt?

I was wondering if anyone has any experience wet felting alpaca fiber.  I have some that is mixed with wool and it felted fine, but how does just alpaca felt?  If you know, I would love for you to share your experiences!
Kelly