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.