Well, here it is! My Epic Yarn post :) This is the story of how I went "from the farm, to the yarn!". Hand processing fleece into yarn from scratch is something I've had on my bucket list for a long time, so when I discovered that a local alpaca farm, Magpie Hill Alpacas had advertised for volunteers to help with their annual shearing I jumped at the chance, and of course I signed up right away!
It was such an amazing experience! I got to meet the alpacas and learn all about how the shearing process is done.
The alpacas were so sweet and inquisitive! Look at their cute little faces :)
With a sample of the raw fleece that was shorn that day in hand I rushed home to start my endeavour.
~~~ STEP 1: Washing ~~~
I know that many people spin alpaca fleece without washing it, as it doesn't contain lanolin the way that sheep's fleece does, but I wanted the full experience so I decided to wash mine for good measure. The tutorial that I used was this one that I found on youtube.
I rinsed each batch 3 times and as you can see in the bottom right of the picture above, after 3 rinses the water ran nice and clear.
Then after a gentle squeeze, it was out into the fresh air to dry.
~~~ STEP 2: Picking ~~~
After the fleece had completely dried, it was time to hand pick the fibres. Below is the result of picking, which I found many tutorials on youtube for, including this one. This video uses a picking "machine", but if you're like me and don't have one, you can certainly just pick the fibres apart by hand....it just takes a little bit longer.
The fleece quickly became super fluffy and soft! and you can see how much whiter it is now, compared to the raw fibres before the washing process.
~~~ STEP 3: Carding ~~~
After much searching in Ottawa, I finally found some hand cards for sale at Wabi Sabi, a really cool yarn/fibre arts store close to down town, and got to work. There are a TON of carding tutorials on youtube so if interested, you can just search there, as I found a combination of videos to be pretty helpful. It seems as though everyone has their own sort of "style" to hand carding so, after watching several of videos I sort of got the general idea of it and then kind of came up with my own "style" that worked pretty well.
Hand carding results in something called a "rolag" (those fluffy, sausage-like things you see above) and most people will then spin right off the end of the rolag. But I wanted something longer and more continuous like roving, so after some google-ing I found this great tutorial on how to turn rolags into roving, through something called "dizzing" where you pass the fibres through a very small opening such as that of something like a large button, which is exactly what I used. Worked like a charm!
By splitting the ends of the rolags in two, then sort of merging or blending them together, and then passing it through the button, I ended up with one, long roving to spin with.
~~~ STEP 4: Spinning ~~~
I also got this drop spindle at Wabi Sabi, and got started on my first hand-spun yarn.
There are also a TON of tutorials on youtube for spinning on a drop spindle, but a few of my favourites were this one and this one.
After a bit of practice, I started to get the hang of it, and really started to enjoy spinning! It's actually pretty addictive, so watch out!
~~~ STEP 5: Plying ~~~
This step is optional, but I wanted to do it to create a softer, loftier, more balanced yarn. While you can ply the "single" yarn on itself, I decided to use some embroidery thread to create a more delicate effect.
When plying, you want to spin onto the drop spindle in the OPPOSITE direction that the single was spun, in order to make them "twist" together.
~~~ STEP 6: Setting the Twist ~~~
After the yarn is all spun up onto the spindle, to finish your yarn and turn it into a skein, you need to wind it off the spindle and set the twist of the yarn so that it "stays". By winding the yarn around something like a chair back (or a niddy noddy if you have one - which I don't, haha), and then tying some thread in a figure 8 pattern around the yarn in a few spots (which is shown in the video), then soaking in some warm water and hanging with a weight of some sort at the bottom, it removes any excess twist that you might have in the yarn, and sets the twist. This step helps the yarn relax and hang straight, and keeps it from bunching all up on itself. This tutorial was great for this step.
And Voila! after it's all dry, you have a lovely skein of yarn, ready to use!
Tada!
~~~ STEP 7: Use your yarn! ~~~
The sample of fleece that I brought home only yielded about 27 yards of yarn, so I had to be a bit creative in deciding on what to make with it. I had also bought an a skein of yarn at the Alpaca farm when I was there (which is a lovely caramel colour, made from one of their very own alpacas and processed at a local mill), and combined it with my hand spun yarn to make these cute fingerless gloves.
I found the pattern for the heart here, and for the rest I just sort of "winged it" as I couldn't find a granny heart pattern that I liked. And here's what I ended up with! You can't imagine how incredibly soft and luxurious these feel!!
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Thanks lady Alpaca, for your lovely, fluffy fleece!
