Baby alpaca... mmmm

I finished up some gorgeous white baby alpaca yarn yesterday. I got the fiber from Maple, from Northstaralpacas, another etsy seller and contributor to the phatfiber box. We did a trade awhile ago... one of my skeins of satin angora yarn, in exchange for some raw baby alpaca fiber, and some alpaca roving. I absolutely LOVE working with this fiber! This skein is 2 1/8 oz... leaving me with another 5 7/8 oz to work with... PLUS the roving she gave me! It is soooo soft! I figured I'd list one of my skeins in my shop to share the joy of working with this amazing yarn, but I'll probably be greedy with the rest and not wanna share ;)


I started out by washing the fiber and laying it out to dry for a day or two. Then card card card...
I got most of the VM out during carding (there wasn't that much to begin with... which is a DEFINITE plus). Then when I card on my hand carders I take the fiber off and basically predraft it. Pull it out so rather than being in batts or rolags it's easier to keep straight, which makes it easier to work with while spinning. Spun up my singles, then I wound the whole thing into a center pull ball so I could just ply from both sides and meet in the middle. Then ply away! Wind it onto the skein winder and add up the yardage... and done! I make sure my yarns are all perfectly balanced, so I don't even need to rinse and set it once it's done. Just tag it and viola! Gorgeous baby alpaca yarn! I'm thinking of dying my next batch I make... not sure what color to go for yet though. Probably something all autumny, full of reds, browns and yellows and little bits of green. If I can make it turn out right lol. This wound up being a laceweight yarn, 150 yards. This skein is available in my shop, www.blumzieluxuryyarns.etsy.com

art yarn!

I decided to take this cotswald/alpaca mix that I got from punkjordane on etsy awhile ago and spin up an art yarn with it. Basically just grabbed the fiber, pulled it around in my hands, then spun it long draw, letting it do as it wished. Then I plied it with a stretchy quilting thread to help hold it together and get rid of the extra twist. Turned out pretty cool looking IMO. I'm gonna spin up one more skein of it and list them together in my etsy shop. (I would have done one big skein, but the only wheel I currently have is a louet Victoria, which can only hold about 2 oz of fiber at a time. Oh well.