#llama wool

[cottonkhaleesi]

Done! All that is left is to give them a good bathing to get the last of the excess dye out.

[unexpectedyarns]

I noticed your yarn is handspun and hand dyed. Do you have your own alpacas, or other animals? If not, where so your source your wool (or whichever textile)? Not A GOTCHA question I am genuinely interested in how such a thing works. Thank you.

Hi thereThank you for your interest.  Many of the yarns offered in my shop are commercially produced sock yarn which I acquire in “bare” form and hand dye.  MY favorite supplier is out of Miami and deals in mulesing-free fibers from South American sources.

I own many pounds of gray and white raw corriedale which I got from a 4H homeschool group my kids were involved in.  I have a huge box of russet llama fiber from the llama of a dear friend in Northern IL, as well as many bags of various natural color llama fiber I acquired off a local farmer who advertised her shearings on Craigslist.  And I have about 15 boxes of raw alpaca fiber in varous natural colors, some of it first shearings, which I got from a friend who owned a haul-off business. He cleaned out an estate which had the boxes of fiber in a barn and he didn’t know what to do with them.

I haven’t had time to spin or mess with the fibers since moving (we bought a house the end of Feb).  Corriedale just takes several washings by warm soapy soak and then a couple of cardings, and TADA!  Beautiful fluffy wool that can be spun or dyed and then spun.

Llama or alpaca is moar of a pain, because the animals dust bath.  So it takes several warm soapy soak washings, followed by usually SIX cardings (OMG SO MUCH CARDING I WANNA DIE) to get out all the weed seeds and debris.  The fiber is to die for but not cheap because it’s labor intensive.

For probably 10 years I spun only on a drop spindle, but a couple years ago I got a wheel, which I couldn’t spin 4 inches of yarn on.  A friend of mine (and a long-time spinner) traded me wheels about a year and a half ago.  I can now spin on her wheel.  She had figured mine out but says it’s very finicky, def not for a wheel beginner.  Additionally, 3 of my daughters spin, all 4 knit, 2 of my 3 sons, and my husband knit (or have knitted things).

Sometime soon I hope to get to spinning again, but right now I have a broken middle finger, which hampers EVERYthing.

[cottonkhaleesi]

Trying some onion skin dyeing on the llama wool I spun up last year. Baby's first dye at all to be honest, so I'm excited and scared! Results hopefully tomorrow.

[cottonkhaleesi]

Ok! One down, one to go... 🦙

[picturesofmystuff]

A three inch llama figurine. This was given to me for Christmas 2013 by my older sister. She and her boyfriend spent two months trekking across Ecuador, just to see what they could see. This llama is made of actual llama wool and is incredibly soft.

[thegirlwhoarchivedherblog]

OH, a guy from work is actually trying to get me Llama wool/fur/whatever it is. So I can try to make my own yarn. I've never really heard of Llama wool yarn, but I googled it and it seems legit. Hopefully it doesn't feel like regular wool because that shit's itchy. I'm probably setting myself up for skin failure but at least I'm trying.