Our Gorgeous Fleece

So we have spent this summer looking at the beautiful soft fleece that our boys gave us this year.  Trying to decide what to do...sell it as raw fibre, have it processed and turned into yarn or get those creative juices flowing and have some fun.  

We are very lucky that all six of our boys have fabulous fleece and in fact a few of them have exceptional fleece.

The black and white fleece Vincent gave us

Alpaca fleece is luxuriously soft and extremely warm.  Unlike sheep's wool, alpaca fleece is not prickly and has no lanolin so it is hypoallergenic.  This beautiful fleece has to be sheared every spring in order to keep the alpacas from overheating in our warm climate.  It can be carded and spun into beautiful yarns and it didn't take long for me to purchase my first set of hand carders.  After many online tutorials and asking a lot of questions, I gave it a shot and this is what I got.

My first rolags

I started with Vincent's beautiful black and after a few knots, a few frustrating attempts and a couple of more online tutorials, I was getting the hang of it.  I was at it again first thing the next morning and was quickly hooked and it was time to start experimenting.  I took some of Vincent's white fleece from his neck and combined it with his black and started carding it.  After just a few strokes this beautiful gray started to appear.  I have decided that this gray is going to be used for a special project, I just don't know what that is yet.

Now all I have to do is improve my limited knitting skills and learn how to spin!  I can't wait!