Alpaca Farm

A few weeks ago, I attended an Arts & Craft Show. A local farm had set up a booth and was selling Alpaca yarn. I stood by watching the farmer spin fibers with a spinning wheel. I struck up a conversation with him and told him I have always been interested in spinning. I bought some beautiful gray yarn and was handed a brochure on "Hand Processing Fibers". Each month the farmer and his wife hold a class up at their farm and teach people how to work with Alpaca fibers from beginning to end. I was very excited and signed up the next day.

Sunday morning, my mom and I hoped in our car and headed north to the little farm. We joked about being city girls going to hang out with Alpacas. With black coffee in our hand, we were given a brochure that discussed Laserscan Micron Testing and the standard deviation of Alpaca fibers. I have to admit that I was a little shocked and impressed by this farmer. Although I thoroughly enjoy Statistics, I don’t think the other visitors appreciated it at 9 AM.

The farmer went on to explain that there are two different types of Alpacas: Huacaya (fluffy) & Suri (dreadlocks). Alpaca fiber is softer, yet stronger than wool; comes in 22 natural colors; lighter and warmer than wool; and contains no lanolin, yet feels silky. Alpacas originate from South America and have a similar personality to cats.

We then all headed out to the barn to begin the day's work. We spent the morning working through the process of skirting, tumbling, washing, picking, and carding. With a finished product in hand, we went back into the farm house and worked on dying fibers, spinning, needle felting, wet felting, knitting, and weaving.

The farmer took us for a tour around the farm and to meet his 88 Alpacas. Some were very interested in the new guests and ran right over to see us, while others stood back and watched. One particular Alpaca loved to have his nose petted and followed us around. Another one didn't like all the visitors and tried "spitting". Thankfully we were not hit.

It was a delightful way to spend a beautiful spring day and I came out with a greater appreciation of hand-made fibers.