Alpaca!

This arrived in the mail on Friday! Three pounds of alpaca fleece, from Sacha, a male huacaya alpaca who lives in Washington State. Blanket cut--the good stuff. It is unbelievably soft. I took this picture the other day.




Today, I got smart, and opened the bag for a better photo! What we suspected looking at it through the bag is confirmed--the fleece is very clean with no visible veggie matter. A little dusty, but that is to be expected, as alpaca like to take dirt baths. Isn’t it gorgeous??!!

Another box arrived yesterday!




This is 2.5-3 pounds of alpaca fleece, from Fancy Dan, a male suri alpaca, who also lives in Washington State. It is also the blanket cut. I skipped the “through the bag photo” this time—haha! You might notice that it doesn’t look like there is nearly as much fleece there. The volume of fleece in the bag is much less than in the other bag, that is true. But, this one feels just as heavy. This fleece is much denser—the fiber is very long and silky. You will notice the different colors in this bag, Fancy Dan is a two-toned alpaca! Isn’t it beautiful???

Anne and I will be splitting the alpaca fleece. I will admit it is a little harder to do that, after having seen and touched this fleece, but a deal is a deal! And it is Anne, after all---who better to share with? It is raw fleece, so there will be cleaning to be done, although many sources say you really don’t have to scour this fleece. There is no lanolin in alpaca fleece, and all that needs to be washed out is any dirt, etc. I have read that some people actually like to spin first and then wash, for the added traction from the dirt. Whatever. I think the dirt/dust would be likely to bother my allergies, so I will wash it first!

I think I can safely say that Anne and I are both looking forward to working with these fleeces!