Yesterday was challenge day for the bike riders and for spinners. I chose to set myself a number of challenges at the same time. I wanted to spin 100% alpaca. I wanted to spin lace weight. I wanted to spin a mile and I wanted to bring out the best in an alpaca fleece I had gotten a couple of months ago.
I had gotten a couple of alpaca fleeces from Wendy at Dream Weaver Alpacas. And I fell for Prada’s fleece. Prada is an alpaca that would have gotten culled out of the herd by most breeders. His fleece was multicoloured and that makes it a pain for anyone who sends fleece out to be processed. I wanted to use the unusual to make something exceptional.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of Prada but here is picture of the fleece as it is drying in the sun.


He had a bit of brown, a bunch of grey and a lot of black.
I separated each of the colours out and carded them into different batts.
I split each of the batts in half so that when I plied them together I would retain the colour shifts. 8:00 a.m.,I got my wheel set on it’s fastest ratio (33:1) and I started to spin. By the time I’d gotten through the first bit of my three batts I knew that I wasn’t going to get it all spun in one day.
I discovered that I needed to put quite a bit of twist in the singles. I got the first bit done by 12:30 and the second half of the first three batts done by 4:00. I treadled fast and got some music with a good strong beat to help me keep my feet moving. Well, I thought I’d get it plied in short order and then spin up another bobbin full. Not so fast.
The alpaca needed even more twist in the plies to stay together. Alpaca is smooth like hair. Wool has little barbs on it that help it hold together. If I didn’t put a lot of twist in, it started to drift apart. Well, that was why I was doing this wasn’t it? so that I could learn how to spin alpaca. I went on a plying marathon and that is where the real challenge began. I find plying to be … well … boring. Faster music, faster treadling, I mean my orifice,
(minds out of the gutter) was getting hot. I wanted to quit. I didn’t need this. I could finish it tomorrow. Why was I doing this? I was doing this to proof that I could. I finished plying it around 7:30. I skeined it off so that I could measure it. 665yds. Yes, I’m counting the plying this time so I did make a mile of spinning. 2 bobbin of singles at 665 and the plying makes over 1900yds of spinning in one day. Oh and the best part. I like the yarn and I like more every time I look at it. It isn’t all flash and sparkle. It’s soft but solid and strong. It has presence.

I meet all my challenges. So what did I learn. I can spin fast if I have to, but I’m glad I don’t have to.
Today I continued spinning on the rest of the alpaca that I had carded. I spun at my own pace, which is still pretty quick but I enjoyed it a lot more. Do you suppose we all have a beat that we are happiest moving to? A cadence that is all our own. It might explain those different tastes in music.
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