Drum Carding My Alpaca

Yesterday I talked about washing this lovely fiber from Mira (white) and Lyra (dark fawn) and today I will show you how I prepare it for spinning.

This is my Strauch carder which I love. I've tried others but my alpaca fiber and I like this best (although I would dearly love to put a motor on it). On the left above I've fluffed up and spread out some of the fawn fiber. Turning the red handle will pull the fiber in to the picky/pokey licker-in while the big drum with the little curved wires rotates and straightens the fiber out. I planned this batt to be in layers.

After carding the first layer of fawn in, I add a layer of white as you can see in this looking down on the carder shot. Then I layered up another fawn and another white. As the wheel is turning, the brush on top lightly presses the fleece down, but after each layer, I use an old cheap bristle brush to further compact the batt.

There is a small strip with no wires on it so that you can slide a big knitting needle or special tool like the one above to loosen and pull the fiber up.

Then using your hands and slowly turning the drum, you pull the fiber off. This came off very smoothly, probably because the staple lengths are 5 to 6 inches long.

I like to run my fleece through just once to avoid any broken pieces (noils), but if I wanted to I could divide this up and run it through again for a more blended look. I want the white and fawn separated because I think it will spin up beautifully.

Roll those little beauties up and you have gorgeous batts ready to be spun. I have enough washed up to card some more for me to spin, so I think I'll put these in my Etsy shop when I get some time. One weighs 1.6 ounces and the other is 1.8 ounces for a total of 3.4 ounces

Washing Alpaca Fleece

I get so excited with all this freshly shorn fleece around that I just don't know what to do next. It's all weighed, staple length measured, recorded, and compared to last year's shear, so I can play. I don't know if there is a correct way to clean it, I'll just tell you what I do.
I work with about 4 or 5 ounces at a time. Running the hottest tap water that I can, I add a couple squirts of Dawn dishwashing soap, then gently sink the fiber in. I let this soak for about 20 minutes, every once in a while giving it a few pokes. I lift the fiber into a colander and drain out the dirty water. You will be amazed how filthy this is compared to the fairly clean look to the fleece. I repeat this wash, usually 2 washes are enough. Two rinses should finish it up.
I have never had my fleece felt but I think that it's important to know that you can go from cool to hot, but NEVER hot to cold......and as little handling and agitation as possible.

Above is some of Lyra (dark fawn) and Mira's (white) fleece washed up.

After washing and rinsing the fleece, I put it into mesh bags, and using the last spin cycle on my top loading washing machine, I spin it out. This cycle adds no water so my fiber is safe.

It will come out of the bags rather clumpy, so I pull it apart and sort of line up the fibers, and spread it on my counter to dry. By now most of the vegetation has disappeared and I pick out any remaining, along with second cuts that might have been missed.

Mira and Lyra's fleece is drying. Tomorrow I will show you how I'm going to card these two colors together.

Aimee, I would think that you could do the entire fleece in the bathtub, or even your washing machine, if you didn't agitate. I just don't like lugging around that much wet fleece.

Shear Day Visitors & JR Update

I tried to add this picture ↑ yesterday but it totally disappeared. I frequently have picture troubles here on blogger. Anyway, these are some of our shear day visitors who happen to be from the Lansing area. Heather, who isn't in the picture, has become an online friend. Visit her Etsy shop here → WineMakersSister Yep, the family does produce wine, and it's delicious. Heather brought me a couple bottles on her last visit. Don't you wish that you had that kind of friends?

......and here's JR before his first shear. He hardly stressed at all although his leading isn't the greatest. Had to pretty much drag him to the shearing aisle. His shear weight was 2 pounds, 12 ounces of incredibly fine, gorgeous fiber. Good job, JR.

I think the daily feedings are pretty much over. I have to catch him now and plunge a little in his mouth. He used to come running up to slurp down 3 tubes of his special gruel. I'm happy that he must be doing well and I don't have the chore anymore (after 8 months), but a little piece of me is saddened that he no longer has to depend on me. Sort of like sending the kid off to kindergarten.

Alpaca Shear Day

I'm going to sort of talk you through our shear day which was yesterday. The first thing we do is lay the alpaca down which takes a coordinated strength. The two guys (one in front & one in back) reach under the alpaca, grasp his legs, and in a lifting, pulling motion lay the 'paca down as gently as possible. Then both front and hind legs are hobbled and stretched out along a metal pole. You can see Celeste's legs above. After one side is sheared, the animal is gently rolled over.
Dave Binkowski and his daughter Katie both shear at the same time so that the entire shear takes less than 10 minutes and the animal isn't stressed too much.
Neighbor Dean. at Celeste's head, has removed her halter to trim the top notch and to have her teeth checked. Instead of teeth on top, alpacas have a hard palette so it's important that the bite is correct. Alpaca Barber Dave will use his Dremel tool to correct any imperfections and whack off fighting teeth if necessary.

While they are down is the excellent time to trim toe nails. Alpacas have two hard nails that sometimes grow screwy so Beth is shown here snipping away. I also give them injections while they are down. Yesterday they got Dectomax to prevent Menengeal Worm which in the deer world is called Brain Worm.



So while all this is going on, the shears are helping us sort the fleece as they remove it into Prime, Seconds, and Thirds (which becomes mulch for my flower garden). Persons (Billie and Gwen) are handy with plastic bags to collect this precious stuff as it comes off the animal. You can imagine how busy this all appears with 8 of us working around the animal.
The pictures on the right are before and after of 10 month old Mira. If you click on them, they get bigger. This was her first shear and the prime of her 6 inch long fleece weighed 3 pounds, 5 ounces. Her seconds weighed 2 pounds.
In spite of being extremely tired last night, I was wound and couldn't sleep so was still up at 3 a.m. weighing, measuring, and languishing in freshly shorn alpaca fleece.
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I am extremely fortunate to have such great friends who come and help me out. It is physically hard with all the ups and downs that we do, and. yes, dusty and dirty also.
So thanks, folks, for being my friends and making me the luckiest woman in the world.

Grand Champions Chinella and Beth

I've had a little blog neglect going on here. Last week was spent getting ready for our alpaca show in Davisburg, Michigan. Both Chinella ↑ and Oppie ↓ loaded and traveled well in my van. The woman at McDonald's window did a double take at what was with us. Buddy Beth (critter lover in my comments) took both girls through the ring.
Chinella was our star! She won her class of black yearling girls on Saturday, and Beth took her back to win the ♫ Grand Champion ♫ of all the black girls at the show. You can only imagine how excited we were. We are a small farm and have never even won a blue before.
As soon as folks arrive at a show, a team of "checker inners" reads the alpaca's microchip, examines the health papers, and does a color check in the bright light before they are allowed to be stalled. Oppie's color has changed from light fawn to beige and she competed in a class called Light Colored Yearlings.
I'm very pleased that she took a second. For the folks who have followed my blog, Oppie (Golden Opportunity) is the really athletic little girl who has a mind of her own, so just getting her through the class was a super big achievement. Many thanks, Beth.
We spent time on the way home trying to decide on our breedings. Both these girls will be 2 next fall and we think that Tribute might be a good match.

This is the first that I have been away overnight in over a year and was able to do it because daughter Terre and her Golden Izzie came and stayed to do chores and care for the barn critters.....and can you believe, she even vacuumed the house. Thanks, Terre.

Good morning, girls & Cord's new pasture

This is what greets me after my morning commute of 100 steps to the barn. The Girls! Actually, there are 10, not the 8 that you see here. They are always cushed down like this waiting for their morning pellets. The little door that you see on the top right is for the young'uns. The big girls can't get in there so I can keep hay and pellets For Babies Only.
And just below the door, you can see their poop place. Alpacas are so easy to clean up after because they use a communal bathroom. Tidy little darlings, aren't they?

....and here is the yard/pasture that my neighbor woman and I completed yesterday. This is part of my Cut Back on Mowing project. That lovely grass should be eaten, not mowed, right? We cut apart part of Cord's fencing and put a gate in and then wired a large area for him to graze on. I'm so proud to say that I pounded in metal t-posts on the corners and then stepped in these plastic posts. A hot wire runs across the top and then a tape with electricity runs under it. The most time consuming thing was getting the electricity to work. As it turned out the deer knocked out the big pasture again - in three places and after splicing those, we had power.

The horse that you see here is my Ivan on his way out to his own pasture. He's a big guy (Percheron/Thoroughbred) but pretty good at dressage and jumping.

Renee Spins Alpaca/Dog Yarn

A couple of months ago Renee came over to spend the day with me. We played in fiber. I had a few bags of Cassie ↓ hair that my groomer had saved for me. Renee blended it with light fawn (Oppie, I think), ran it through the drum carder a couple of times, and took it home.

........and mailed it to me this week. Two beautifully spun, 2 plied balls of alpaca/golden retriever yarn. Can you see the halo on this yarn? It's really yummy and I'm going to knit something just for myself, probably a hat because I wear one all the time in the barn.

Little Max → wishes for some.....

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The really interesting thing about Renee is that she raises camels. Really! She does have an Etsy store for you to visit called HarryCamel Through her store you can commission some of your dog hair spun up. I would definitely suggest adding something like alpaca to it though. ☺from NorthStar, of course☺

Thursday - To answer the guard hair question in comments. This is from Cassie's undercoat, the fine hair that was brushed out.