Fiberlicious

I've been carding an alpaca fleece I bought at Sabamba last spring.  Beautiful fiber!  I watched a video that explained how to pull it off the carder by rolling it between 2 wooden dowels into a fat rolag that can then be turned into hand-pulled roving--as opposed to dizzing it.  It's nice and compact and will store well, I think, but is still easy to pull apart for spinning.  I don't mind spinning off the batts, as they stay fluffy -- but they take up a lot of space, and can matt down over time.   See below ...  I worked through about 1/2 of that fleece this afternoon.

Here's the last of the alpaca roving I bought from Sabamba last fall.  This stuff has been a dream to spin -- so easy!  It's sad to be coming to the end of the batch.  It's remarkable that the roving doesn't get all tangled up.  It just unwinds nice and gentle ...


I found someone on eBay selling a mill end batch of 65% wool and 35% silk mix.  It's beautiful stuff!  The listing said it was clean, but needed to be carded--perhaps because it's been compacted.  I think I could get away with spinning it as is.  Something to look forward to when the alpaca roving runs out.  My friend Lynda liked it too, so we ordered a second round to take us through winter.


Remember those silk laps we learned about at The Sheep & Wool Festival?  I ordered some to experiment and play with.  I love the sheen on these!  the white one is mulberry silk lap; the other is honey tussah silk lap.