RE: [AlpacaTalk] I have a couple of questions on the Fiber I hope you can answer for me.
We have only had alpacas since October 2008, so we are also pretty
new. I took my fiber to a mini mill the first shearing we had in 2009 and
then in 2010, I tried another mill, in addition to the first mill.
The first year, we put like colors/staple lengths together and
didn't identify the yarn by individual animal, but we knew who was grouped
together.
We kept it pretty simple. We had 10% merino blended with the alpaca
to give the yarn a little memory. It worked out great. Sport weight skeins
of 250 yds each. One pound of roving in white and one batt in black.
The second year, we got a little more creative and had fingering
yarn, sport wt and bulky. All in skeins, but this year I will go with
cones, too.
I also had black and white blended into a beautiful gray bulky wt....since I
don't have any gray animals, this will have to do, until I do! I had one
pound of roving in black and a batt in white. (I use the white for felting
soaps) I also had carpet yarn spun from the seconds and it is awesome.
Also we had all the skirting trash felted into sheets and I will use them
for dog beds.
Right now, I have about 30 bags of raw fiber in my garage. We keep
the cards in the bag until we decide to blend fibers. It is easier to
create larger batches if you put blankets together, but make sure the staple
lengths are pretty even. This year we will bank some with NEAFP and buy some
finished products at wholesale costs for this Fall and Winter vendor sales.
I don't have a webstore up yet, but that is in the works. I have
sold through our Farmer's Market and to friends for gifts, mostly. I also
have made gifts.......hats, scarves, wine cozies, felted bags, etc.
Also, I have a few that don't have the softest fiber and I will
blend them with another that is softer.
I also had my white suri blended with a white huacaya and it came
out very nice, too. My sister is familiar with the way the two fibers will
take dye and she said the blend dyes very nicely--so another experiment for
the future!
So, there you go from one newbie to another. I will warn you the
processing is costly and takes time. You didn't say where you live, but if
you are in the VA area, I can recommend a few mini mills.
Laura Roberts
R Half Pint Farm
Spotsylvania, VA
-----Original Message-----
From: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of jewl80fm47
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 12:02 PM
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AlpacaTalk] I have a couple of questions on the Fiber I hope you
can answer for me.
I have a couple of questions on the Fiber I hope you can answer for me.
We are still pretty new to all of this, I have 3 yrs worth of alpaca fiber I
have been working on getting VM out of and getting ready to send off.
My question is, once it is all done, all VM out and ready to be sent off to
be processed....
Do you keep the card for each Blanket, Neck & Legs in with each Bag, or do
you remove it and put all of each color together to send off...
Like all White BLANKETS in one Bag,
All White NECKS in one bag,
and All White LEGS in one bag,
and same for each of the other colors & Section of body....All Fawns
Blankets in one Bag, etc.
I assume the CARD is for if you have a SHOW Blanket? (We've Never done that
yet).
And, What is the best way to have your fiber processed, into Rovings, Yarns,
a mix???
Who do you sell to and how does one go about doing it????
I feel real dumb when it comes to this, and finally have built up enough
courage to ask....
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks
Donna
posted by Chaddo at 4:25 PM
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