Adventures with YarnInformation about everything to do with yarn, knitting, fiber arts, sheep…

Here is the alpaca yarn I’ve spun up from the roving shown in the previous post. Doesn’t it look so yummy! Once I started spinning, I couldn’t stop until it was all done. A quick soak in warm water and hanging it in my bathroom for a few days has set the twist wonderfully. I will be making this into a lovely warm shawl to take advantage of the insulating nature of the alpaca fiber.

My final choice before the yarn is complete is whether I ply it together or not. If I made it into a 2-ply, the yarn w0uld be more even,  as the thick parts and thin parts would even out. The two ply yarn would certainly be stronger and hold up to more rough wear. Then again, plying it means I would only have around 210 yards to make into a shawl, which might not be enough. I think for now I will go ahead and start knitting the shawl up with the single ply yarn, and after a bit if I don’t like the results, I can undo it and proceed with plying.

Here’s a detailed shot to let you see some of the yarn thicknesses. Also, you can see a few areas of overspun-ness, but far less than my last lacelikeweight yarn! My spinning skills are improving!

Oh my gosh, aren’t they just so cute!!

Over the weekend of September 26th I was able to visit Ballintotas Alpacas, a small family run alpaca farm outside of Arnprior, Ontario. The Rouleau family has been tending  a herd of alpacas for 9 years now, focusing on raising champions and high quality 4H animals as well as high quality fleeces, awards of both are proudly (and rightfully, I may add) displayed. They sell a wide variety of alpaca products, such as gloves, hats, and shawls (including a loose sock for diabetes patients), as well as machine spun yarn and duvets.

The family were great hosts, greeting us when we came in, taking us to the alpacas, sharing a great overview of alpaca knowledge as well as answering any questions we had. The alpacas themselves were gentle and absolute angels (that’s what you get when most of your boys are gelded), many of them loved having rubs and being petted. The one filly who was harnessed up and taken out for us to more closely pet showed absolutely no wildness, even when her foot was brought up. I felt very welcome here, in fact out of all of the Rural Ramble sites I visited, I would say this one was the best!

They had a few bags of alpaca roving for sale, so I picked one up, 100 grams of a light sandy color for $13. I am so looking forward to spinning it up! I think I will make a shawl with it. It is so soft and warm, I almost want to keep it as roving forever… but Mom didn’t like that idea too much

One thing I love about the simple packaging is that it prominently features the alpacas who contributed to the product. Each label features a picture of the alpaca, as well as their name and any awards they’ve won. I immediately felt much closer to the product, especially after petting and snuggling with the alpacas only a few minutes prior. It was very much a similar experience as the one I had at Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm/Hudson Valley Fiber Farm.

And get this, what do you think this artwork is made of? I thought chalk or pastel. Nope, it’s alpaca fiber! The “canvas” is a large wet-felted piece of alpaca felt, and the rest of it is dyed  as needed and needle felted on. What a great idea this is!

All in all, my visit to Ballintotas Alpacas was a wonderful experience. I will keep my eyes on their website for other times when I can go and visit the alpacas!

If you are interested in seeing more alpaca photos, you can see my entire photoset on Flickr.