Fiber Processing

Lynn Edens, owner of Imperial Yarn and Little Creek Farm, has transformed a passion for spinning alpaca fiber into a thriving business and is on a mission to help other American-grown alpaca ranchers in the United States find success. Lynn was running a horse farm when she became interested in spinning. The first time she spun with alpaca, she was hooked. Alpaca fleece is available in grades as fine and uniform as cashmere yet offers distinct advantages over that other luxury fiber. “I loved the buttery handle and the brightness of the best-quality alpaca,” she says. “It was as soft as cashmere with comparable loft, but it also had great strength and longer fiber length, which makes for easier spinning and more consistent yarn.” She also discovered that this premier alpaca fiber was affordable relative to its quality. “This is because unlike cashmere goats, for instance, top-quality alpacas can produce pounds instead of ounces of elite-quality fiber every year.” more »

So we’d sorted, prepared and now we needed to spin the fleece. Marilyn showed us two methods, the first using a drop spindle which is still favoured by Peruvian women (nearly all of their daughters can spin by the age of three). Fitting neatly into one hand, the drop spindle is highly portable and spinning can be done even while walking. The demonstration then progressed onto using a treadle spinning wheel with a discussion on how the resulting yarn can be plied to create 2 ply, 3 ply, etc. more »

The oldest and most traditional method of turning alpaca fibre into yarn is hand spinning. Alpaca is a very attractive fibre to the hand spinner as unlike sheep’s wool it is a dry fibre, containing minuscule amounts of lanolin and so can be spun straight from the fleece without the need to scour. Many BAS members sell individual fleeces in all colours to hand spinners. Some will sell carded (or combed) fleece and some washed and carded fleece in small quantities down to as little as 50-500g. The average unsorted alpaca fleece is around 2.5kg and will give a hand spinner enough fine fibre to keep them busy for a very long time. more »

Rustic yarn is all about creativity and imperfection. It’s about taking the fiber that you have and creating something that goes beyond the limits of what everyone else is doing. In the beginning, the knowledge and the skills may be less than expected, but improvement comes based on some aspect of natural talent, good luck, and the willingness to learn from the things that didn’t work. It also helps if you have someone nearby who initially knows more than you do. more »

Hints and suggestions on spinning suri fleece. more »