Fun with Alpacas

I visited the West Valley Alpaca Farm with two of my friends from my Knitting Group today. I heard about it from one of my other knitting friends on Ravelry.

Pat Meade and Jon Robbins run this small farm, where they keep a herd of 11 alpaca. Pat says that at their largest, they had a herd of 30 at one time. They sell alpacas, and have a small store where they sell the fleece that they shear from their animals, their own yarn, and yarn from other alpaca yarn companies. I really really really wanted to buy some of their yarn, but I bought a whole bag of blanket fleece shorn from Phoenix, one of their males, and a half a bag of blanket fleece (split with Claudia) shorn from Dorian, another male with the most beautiful coloring: grey, brown, black, and tan. I am hoping that one of my spinner friends can spin it for me. Phoenix is the back alpaca in the photo to the right =>

I tried spinning with a drop spindle...didn't do much for me...I would rather have already spun yarn.

We watched Pat and Jon (and a young helper) shear Ligu, one of the studs. The fleece that they sheared off looked just like a rug, thick and warm. Pat said that it was a year's growth. They separated the fiber into three categories: blanket, which is the softest part of the alpaca, sheared from the saddle area and for projects that will be worn next to the skin, Seconds, which is coarser and had more particles than the blanket, and Thirds, which is coarser than Seconds, good for felting projects. Some of the shearings aren't considered good enough to use/sell, so Pat says that she uses them in her compost; she wastes nothing. They sell the blanket portions of their alpacas' fleece, 2 of which came home with me. While it is true that the fleece gets coarser with age, I couldn't tell the difference, or rather, I didn't mind paying much less for "older fleece" instead of the more expensive younger alpaca fleece. Heck, it's alpaca--it's all soft, as far as my hands are concerned!

This is Ligu before...and after his shearing!