If you have been reading along since September then you might remember that I lucked out when I found someone selling these massive bags of alpaca fiber for $5 each, and if you're just joining me -- that's it; that’s the story.

I decided to start with the black because I had high hopes of turning this gorgeous and rich fiber into a lovely sweater for the colder months.  

The staple was long and made for some lovely spinning.  That being said, there were a lot of guard hairs in this fleece.  

The fiber worth spinning in the fleece was just as straight as the guard hair though, so I spent most of the time pinching the fiber between my fingers in order to weed out the tough guard hairs.  

I'm not one for waste, but the guard hairs simply wouldn't grab when I attempted to spin them (yes I'm that stubborn) and, even if they did grab as the fibers pulled together from the twist, it would be rough and make for an uncomfortable garment.  

Lucky for me a good friend of mine makes stuffed creatures of the various sort (I'll link her shop when it's up and running) and she graciously offered to take the rough fiber off my hands to use for stuffing.

This stuffing idea won out over my first plan to avoid waste which was to put it outside in an area where birds or squirrels can get to it.  The fiber makes great insulation for their nests, and it's far less wasteful than just throwing it away.  I even remember as a kid when my family would brush the winter coats off of the horses we had, only to find it years later whenever a bird's nest would fall out of tree.

The carded fiber did turn out beautiful, but there wasn't nearly enough of it for a full sweater once all of the guard hairs were weeded out.

Nonetheless, I will find something fun to do with it soon, and you will certainly be hearing about it as soon as I do.

The other four bags of fiber are also in the process of being, well, processed.  It always takes a hefty chunk of time and makes me endlessly grateful for people creating the kind of technology that can do this work far more efficiently.  I just do the long way because I find it relaxing, and I can be a little old fashioned.

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.

Of the many spinning retreats I went to when I was younger, one gave me something that I never really appreciated until I started working it.

In a random draw, I was given this alpaca fiber.  

A 2 1/2 gallon bag stuffed to the brim, and every last bit was riddled with sticks, twigs, grasses, seeds, and other such vegetation with a nice coating of dirt all the way through.  At points in this project, I thought there was more debris than fiber in the bag.  More dirt than beast.

I looked online for some carders, and was quickly disheartened with how heinously expensive they all were.  It may have just been where I was looking, but it seemed like even the smallest of carders cost about $50, and that was on the low end.  

Feeling set back, I voiced my grievances to a good friend that was over for a crafty morning get-together.  She, in all of her glowing brilliance, asked why I didn't just hop on over to the local pet store and pick up a dog grooming brush.  

Sure enough, I go down to the nearest one and got two for under $30, and they worked like a dream.

That being said, I still had a lot of fiber to go through.  This itty bitty dent was after I had spent 8 hours chipping away at it.

Despite how much time I started putting into this project, I never got bored or frustrated.  It started becoming a reliable and comforting way to spend my morning.  I get up early to help my partner get together some food for his work day, and when he left I would typically just go back to bed.  Carding gave me a nice reason to stay up and enjoy the morning.  I found it soothing to just sit back and make consistent and visible progress for a couple of hours in the morning, and then again in the evening (basically whenever my deck was in the shade so I wouldn't have to fuss with sunscreen but also wouldn't tempt the sun into burning my skin off).

After every carding session, I would spin up what I had just worked on.  In part so there would always be room for the extra fluffy fiber in the bag, but also because I'm madly in love with the colour, and wanted to spin it up as soon as it was ready.  

In total, the carding process took about 39 hours and 20 minutes.  It gave me a deep appreciation for just how much work people used to go to clean fiber,  also a better understanding as to why the professionals have the big, fancy drum carders that do all of that work in a fraction of the time.  

The poofy bliss was a dream to spin, and with each session I was able to enjoy seeing just how much yarn I was actually getting from these hours upon hours of carding.  

The fiber (unsurprisingly) remained gorgeous as I plied and washed it.

However, despite the colour being natural, the fiber was so incredibly dirty that the water went from clear to this murky brown within moments of me washing the skeins.

I managed to get 6 1/2 skeins out of the fiber.  I'm planning on carding and spinning some more alpaca that's the same colour, and making a sweater out of all of it, so stay tuned!

It was a little shocking to see just how much time it takes to take fiber from the start to the finished product of yarn.  I both admire those who did it with far fewer tools than I have, and applaud those who came up with the technology to make it easier.  That being said, I did buy more fiber that needs carding, and am greatly looking forward to taking it through all of the steps and sharing those steps with all of you.  It's fun to possess an older skill set and be part of its continuance in the world.  It's wonderful to remind myself of why yarn and fiber can sometimes seem so pricey, and to see first hand the hard work it takes to get the comfy coats of fluffy beasts to the shimmering beauty of yarn.  I hope you also got some enjoyment out of looking at the process, and know that the sweater will be in the making soon!

Thank you so much for being here and reading about my dreams.  I hope all is well with you, and you're having a sweet life, crafty or otherwise.