Tuesday 22 February 2011

Cria Lace

A neighbor of my parents, Joanne, is raising alpacas. She got a bunch of last year’s shearing spun at a mill, but her cria fleece (from the baby alpacas) was not sufficient to do a batch there. Guess who gets to spin it? Yup, me. Spinning on shares - she gets some of the finished stuff, and I get some. It’s a lovely blend of fawn shades – I love the colors in alpacas. This is my set-up for picking it over – second cuts to remove, and a bunch of hay and stuff. I suspect baby alpacas, like any other kids, play with their food and get into all sorts of things they shouldn’t.
 I’m spinning it fine, aiming for laceweight or thereabouts. (The wheel, if you’re curious, is the Hitchhiker from Merlin Tree. Great size for travel, I take it on the bus.)

Takes forever to fill a bobbin, but I know exactly what I’m doing with my share if I have enough yardage. Olga's Indiski Shawl. It was in Piecework Magazine a while back, in an article on Russian lace knitting, and I fell in love. This is just the excuse I need to stick to the spinning long enough.

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