Sweet!

I have worked with the alpaca and come out on top. I have conquered, and I’m loving it.

It’s really weird how different it is from regular wool. I can’t think of how to describe it expect that it’s “buttery-er” than wool. It kind of slides along. I’ve been spinning it on the Walking Wheel.

The original idea was to try for a sport weight yarn, but I don’t know if that’s what this will turn out as. I spun a gazillion little samples to see what the best amount of twist would be. (And promptly forgot which sample went with which amount of twist.) But, the alpaca seems to be behaving, and I’m getting pretty good at separating out the coarser, slippery hairs. Wait, that sounds funny—how can something be slippery and coarse? . . . but that’s really the only way I can describe it.

I also finished blocking the blue merino-bamboo wrap. Isn’t it pretty?

Oh, and the Jester sock yarn is done. Sorry, that one slipped under the radar. I love the copper sparkles. (Which you can’t really see in this picture.)

I rather enjoy spinning sock yarn. You don’t have to figure out what to do with it once it’s spun.

And, last but not least, I started spinning the brown whatever-it-is wool that’s been sitting in my closet from clear back in August. I’m hoping to make it into a felted bag, so I’m spinning it in a long draw, light-and-fluffy yarn that should felt well. The only problem is that I miscalculated the twist on the first bobbin-full with the result that it’s not plying well. I’ll get just a little bit of ply in there, then BAM it’s over plyed. (And you know, I think I’ve been spelling “plyed” wrong. I’m going to switch to “plied.”)

And, on top of that, the yarn (which is very inconsistent) is getting too big to fit through the orifice. I think I shall go through and re-spin it. Thankfully I didn’t spin all the wool before I discovered this. Only half.

I’ve got the last of Daisy’s fleece soaking, pre-requisite to being washed. I think there’s a pound and half left. Not enough for a sweater, but I think it’ll make a nice, lacy shawl. Although I’m not sure about some of the fleece that went in. It looks a bit felted on the cut end of the locks, and the grease has hardened quite a bit. We’ll see what happens. The soaking water currently resembles a very strong mud-tea.