More on alpaca, and other things

In exulting over my samples and their preparation, I realised subsequently that I had forgotten to give any information about the actual spinning of the fibre. Oops. Maybe not so organised after all......

I did experiment around a bit, but I found that good old short draw gave me the results that I liked best, even with the carded preps. The rolags, because of the nature of the soft, fine, floppy fibre, were not such - I just had very unformed "batts" - so long draw was not an option. I did try point of contact, but felt that this accentuated the slight hairiness of the finished yarn. It seems to me that alpaca, being a hair fibre, does leave its little ends sticking out of the end product. I do apologise for the technical language I am using here! This is not like the halo of mohair, or even Wensleydale, but is probably on the same spectrum.

I do also have issues as yet unresolved with point of contact. I do use it extensively as a spinning process, it is fast, efficient and comfortable. This can either be simply from a mass of fibre, or from the fold. Although I don't find the "fold" all that comfortable to maintain, and generally just hold the folded fibre loosely in my back hand. This would also have the effect of making the "hairiness" even more noticeable, it seems to me.

So short draw it was, fairly tightly controlled for the more worsted-like yarns, looser for the carded. It is all hard to describe with words - I need to get the DSM to take some photos, then I can do a whole series on drafting techniques.

I also forgot to put something in for scale with the notebook. Magnus opus - not. Its about four inches square.....

OK, other stuff. On Yahoo's Natural Dyes list today, a url worth noting. I wish I still was doing my regular trips to Norfolk, this would have been right on the doorstep!

Then, the joys of veg boxes. I get one delivered weekly. I wasn't making the effort to get to the organic veg shop in town often enough, so this plugged the gap. Sometimes, the veg look way too good to eat......



This is a bit fuzzy, but a source of design inspiration none the less. And drawing back.....



Oh, yum.