Dear Allison,
Sorry you have not had much luck with replies. I guess you are stepping
into unknown territory with pinto fleeces and showing them. Have you
been in touch with the show organisers and found out from them if they
have a criteria by which they judge pinto fleeces? Or, do they expect
you to skirt down to the solid colour of the blanket? I think that would
be my next step in your position; contact your breed association or
whoever organises the fleece classes, and see what luck you have. I
would be interested to hear how you get on and what they say.
I know that they judge the fleece here on various criteria: Staple
length (compared to age of fleece), density, fineness, crimp, lustre,
the amount of medullated fibre present throughout the fleece, how clean
the fleece is, uniformity of colour (and for you this might be dependent
on whether they judge pinto fleeces differently), and also uniformity of
all those other attributes throughout the blanket, weight of blanket is
also taken into consideration. Each of those criteria are judged on a
scale of say 1-5, or 1-10. I only know this much, because I went to the
Bath & West show on the fleece judging day and watched them closely,
going through each fleece and tried to hear as much of what they were
saying as possible. One lady with a clipboard and marking off the judges
assessment of each fleece. I guess at the end all the data is reduced
down to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. However, if you have never shown your
fleece before (like me), things can seem unclear and confusing until you
have gained that experience.
Shearing is so important isn't it?! for presenting a good show fleece. I
don't have any pinto alpacas, only solid colours and white, and am
showing three fleeces this year for the first time, so my experience is
limited. Preparing them for show has been a very interesting event in
itself, and I feel like I've learned a lot about preparation and each
animal, and have been able to gain a much better comparison between what
I thought was good, and what actually is good. As a hand spinner like
yourself, I think all alpaca has it's special qualities, no matter what
degree of crimp, lustre, fineness or density it possesses, and each has
it's use, where it can shine. So preparing a fleece for show has allowed
me to stand back and be more objective, in terms of what a fleece judge
might be looking for. Anyway, I live in hope of my fleeces doing
'something' at the shows. Wish me luck.
I wish you good luck with your pinto fleece too! Sorry I couldn't have
been more help, but I look forward to hearing how it does in the shows.
Best Wishes
Amanda Poyner
Barton Alpacas
Somerset, England
> Hi Amanda,
>
> I understand you.but I'm wondering how the judges know it is a p into
> if we
> skirt off all the white? Isn't it by definition necessary to leave some of
> it?
>
> Such a wonderful fleece to work with and so very, very soft.just like
> pashima or quiviit.but even softer. I wonder if it is worth it in the end,
> but I'd like to show it off somehow before I spin it up! Last year the
> shearer made one shallow cut right in the middle of the saddle so we could
> not show it and the year before we had a different shearer who insisted on
> shearing them standing.her first shearing.and so when she bucked and
> jumped,
> it flew down about her legs in pieces and chunks.so could not be
> shown. I'd
> like to get just one chance to see how the hand stacks up against similar
> fleeces---even with the light crimp and not the most dense!
>
> It would be nice if some other folks would chime in as well.I thank
> you for
> taking the time to answer.you were the only one.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Allison
>
> From: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com <mailto:AlpacaTalk%40yahoogroups.com>
> [mailto:AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:AlpacaTalk%40yahoogroups.com>] On
> Behalf Of Amanda Poyner
> Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:31 AM
> To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com <mailto:AlpacaTalk%40yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [AlpacaTalk] skirting a pinto huacaya fleece...repost
>
> Hi Allison,
>
> If it were me, I think I'd try going back beyond the margin between
> brown and white, right into the brown by half to one inch; whatever was
> necessary to do a clean job of seperating the colours in one hit,
> without fiddling with individual fibres. They just tend to float about
> in the air and seem attracted back to the fleece.
>
> Does this make sense; I hope so. Good luck.
> Best Wishes
> Amanda
> Barton Alpacas
> Somerset, England
> Allison Moss-Fritch wrote:
> >
> > Hello list,
> >
> > I'm still hoping that someone out here can help me with skirting a pinto
> > huacaya fleece.No matter how hard I try, it seems as if I'm skirting out
> > most of the white edge fiber and leaving the bayblack "saddle"
> > fiber.but the
> > little bits of white and the neps and second cuts are white on black and
> > black on white.I have spent as much as six hours dampening fingers and
> > picking single fibers off the opposite color..only to find that, upon
> > folding for bagging.I've totally recontaminated the fleece. No wonder I
> > don't see many in the pinto classes at shows.
> >
> > I dearly want to show this fleece. This is a fleece from a production
> > girl.her crimp is not the most obvious, but she makes up for it by
> having
> > the best hand on the farm, bar none. Her fleece is in hit 4th
> shearing and
> > is still under 20 microns in the darker portion with lovely luster and
> > staple length. It is not the most dense, however.but it is worthy of
> > notice
> > if I could figure out how to skirt it!
> >
> > Allison E. Moss-Fritch
> >
> > New Moon Alpacas
> >
> > Santa Clara, CA
> >
> > 408/248-3581
> >
> > http://www.newmoonalpacas.com <http://www.newmoonalpacas.com>
> <http://www.newmoonalpacas.com <http://www.newmoonalpacas.com>>
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
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