Wednesday 31 August 2011

Alpaca Handspun



I love spinning with Alpaca.
They are rather mysterious creatures with wide eyes and long, beautiful eyelashes and a soft downy top coat that doesn't contain lanolin (or to those of you who are not spinning inclined, sticky gooey natural oils) which as you might imagine, makes the whole process of spinning a lot prettier!
I always find that I can get a lot of loft and air between the fibres with Alpaca that is difficult to achieve with anything else that I work with, namely sheep's wool. A few weeks ago I spun a yarn which I had been meaning to do for a long time which came out so light and fluffy I was surprised it didn't float away! I spun a thick and squishy single from a batt blended with the most gorgeous shades of alpaca and merino: chestnut, dusty pink, aubergine and black with magenta, teal, barbie pink and mustard gold. It was like a big downy cloud. I then whirled and twirled it for a second time by playing it with gossamer weight industrial yarn to form a whole bunch of wiggles and delightful squiggle after squiggle.
You can buy this yarn from my etsy shop but I have been having serious second thoughts about selling this! I would quite like to knit-weave this on my knitting machine into a chunky winter coat...


2 comments:

  1. Is that the Steampunk yarn from your Etsy shop? It's lush in the shop, but these pictures make it look even more appealing...!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks- yeah, it is. perhaps I should have a change around! x

    ReplyDelete