Tour de Fleece 2008 Update

Review of Goals: My goal is to have 3 skeins (2-ply) completed of the 'in-process' baby alpaca, my first raw fleece.


Progress: As of Day 9, July 13th, two skeins have been spun, plied, wrapped, and set.


Results: Skein one amounts to approximately 430 yards and 5 oz., skein 2 approximately 380 yards and 4 oz. Both wrap about 18-19 per inch, making it laceweight-ish.



Behold!

I have been anxious with this fleece. It's my first raw fleece, after all. I washed some of it. Then carded some. Then I spun some, all in the effort of making sure that I didn't screw up somewhere along the line, and destroying it all before realizing I was doing something wrong.

I followed Maggie Casey's advice in 'Learn To Spin' in setting the twist. No whacking after it's bath and rinse, but hanging (see the top photo).

When I checked on my yarn after drying, I was very pleased. This stuff is cloud-soft, squooshy, and yummy-licious, just like real baby alpaca! It's really clean, too, which is a pleasant surprise. I am inexperienced in levels of vegetable matter, but it seems this fleece had more than a fair share. But gone now! Or at least invisible mostly....

One more skein to go, and the singles are already in the works. She's a spinning machine, folks, a machine, I tell you!