alpaca

    Last summer/fall my mother bought me three (count 'em three) garbage bags full of alpaca fiber.  There were three alpaca blankets sheered from alpacas at a nearby farm. Two are the creamy beige you think of as typical for alpacas, and one is a gorgeous dark brown.  I am ashamed to say these bags have been sitting in the laundry room for all this time, waiting for me to get up the nerve to try to spin this fiber.
    I got some advise from a spinning list  I am a part of, but still waited.   One woman told me she would spin it without any processing - without washing or carding or anything, washing any dust out afterwards.  So, I tried it.  The fiber is amazingly free of v.m. - a few pieces of hay and some seeds, but not much more.
    The fiber experience is lovely.  It is more slippery than wool, and SO soft.  I think I may be a convert.  I will never give up spinning wool - there are so many wonderful types - but I do love alpaca. If I ever get my farm, I may just have to have a few alpacas as well as sheep!