Back in January, I did some fibre preparation. This beautifully deep grey alpaca was part of Joyce’s stash. My goodness, the vegetable matter and the filth! In the end, I decided I needed to flick card every handful.
That improved it a good deal and made me feel that it was unquestionably worth the effort. And then I washed it, because it was still very dusty–otherwise I have one long “hayfever” attack for the duration I am spinning.
And no wonder–look at the drift of soil and seeds left behind! Here is the washed fibre, and some of the carded batts I made.
After this, I moved on to washing part of a coloured Polwarth fleece, also from Joyce’s stash. It’s hard to make fleece washing interesting, but here is the fleece spread out on a sheet for skirting (or at least a good looking over) and some of the rather beautiful locks. They are packed away, clean and waiting for spinning…
Local & Bespoke 
Your braver than me about the alpaca, I’m certainly not as patient as you. That much vegetable matter would have had me chucking it! Lately I’m more choosey about gifted alpaca❤️
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I am a real flip flopper on raw fleece. I have times when I think I’ll just spin local fleece forever. Then when I am pulling thorny weed seeds out of my fingers I think I’ll never accept a gift of raw fleece again! But this one was a relatively small amount and from Joyce, who has left us. So I gave it more love than I might have otherwise…
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So quick to write about…so long and arduous to do. Fleece preparation is so fundamental. That alpaca was a hero’s journey all on its own!
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Spoken like one who truly knows!
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