Thank You Charlie

What are the neighbors thinking, when they walk by my yard I wonder? 

"Sheesh, she should brush her cat more often!" Actually it's fleece from an Alpaca named Charlie. Some friends were kind enough to give me this gift. This about one third of the whole batch, and here it is, finishing drying after it's bath. (above)

Above there, is the last third, in it's unwashed state.

Here it is some having a good soak. After a little experimenting, I got the hang of swishing it a little, to release the dirt, with out doing any felting. You should have seen the state of the tub, even after the second rinse. It looked like I'd washed about ten really dirty kids, all at once.

 I soaked quite a few towel and let it dry over night on the kitchen table. Of course the picture doesn't do it justice, but the way the light was shining down on it made it look so angelic. Like a table full of feathers. Every time I passed by I had to play with and admire it.

The before and after above is not the same handful, but it gives you an idea. So fascinating, so see the variation of fibre though out the fleece, especially the staple length. I'm a total beginner and just learning about fleeces. I'm so hooked!

 I just found out that my LYS (Baad Anna's for you Vancouverites) is now renting out equipment for processing. I'm going to drum card this! Yippy! One day I will do a post on the differences between combing and carding.  

I hope you enjoyed this!

Thank you Charlie!