Alpaca Sock Blend

Here we have some Shetland on the far left, crimpy white alpaca (herdsire Liberty from Hubbert Farms) and tussah silk. I think the blend was around 25% wool, 60% alpaca and 15 % silk. Only one pass with my Fancicard...pretty good. I will separate them in half and mix them up before putting thru the drumcarder one more time. Gosh these are soft. I can't wait to spin them into a 3 ply sock yarn. Today is quite hot so I decided to finally block my Ene's scarf. I will purchase blocking wires this September when I am a vendor for Hubbert Farms at the Kitchener Knitters Fair. I am sorting thru huacaya and suri fleeces and deciding what blends to make for some new yarns!

Soft and Pretty Shetland

I'm really pleased with this Shetland fleece. It's the softest Shetland I've ever worked with. The staples are long and comb easily on my big combs. You can see the lovely variegated colours of the fleece. I will separate the dark and lighter bits. To wash this greasy fleece, I first soaked it overnight in cold water. The next day I did two hot washes and two hot rinses with vinegar in the first rinse. It worked beautifully. I'm going to try that cold soak with my white merino too.

Lots of WIP's!

Just some pics I took the other day at Hubbert Farms. The fawn coloured cria was born at the shearing .....I took pics of the birth.

I've been busy blocking my Ene's scarf (looks more like a shawl) and carding, spinning black alpaca for a sweater I will be knitting for an alpaca breeder. She is sending me all her nicest fleeces in return for me knitting her the sweater and socks and a simple lace scarf. I am expecting two rose grey cria fleeces, a grey cria fleece, two blacks, a silver grey and a maroon colour cria fleece.

Another project I am busy with is for Terri Shea . All of these projects are challenging me as both a spinner and a knitter but challenge is good....right?

Sheep Shearing

Today DH and I drove out to Willow Garden Shetlands for the annual sheep shearing. I met some super nice people (spinners of course) and helped skirt fleeces for 4 hours. It was alot of fun and I bought a very pale grey shetland fleece and the last BFL fleece from last year. The fleeces are very similar in colour but the BFL has a more pronounced crimp and tighter lock structure. Above are some pics of the washed staples. See if you can tell which is Shetland and which is BFL.