What Do We Do With All The Fleece?
It’s the dirty little secret most Alpaca Breeders have. It’s the thing about us that Fiber Artists just can’t understand.
We have closets, barns, rooms full of fleece. Just sitting there. It’s not that we don’t appreciate it, it’s just that – for some of us – there’s not enough time to do much with it. (Hey, I’ve got four kids and 75+ alpacas to tend to – that’s been my excuse for years.)
There are the organized breeders who ship it off to be processed the day after shearing. I try to be one of those. Try being the operative word. There are many places where alpaca breeders can send their fleece for cash or to be made into something they can sell. Look for a post with those resources next week.
In the past year, my kids have started school, allowing me to take up knitting and dyeing. I’ve become more and more interested in processing the fiber myself. So I want to keep it around until I have time to work with it.
This room is where we usually hold seminars. Note the screen on the wall for Power Point presentations. Lately this room has needed to become the storage room while we get our house/farm ready to sell. The Artist has been grousing that he can’t fit his studio furniture in here if I don’t move the fiber. But where can I put 300+lbs. of fiber?
I told my Dad that it would help my marriage if he would please let me store some of my fleece in his shop building. He agreed! When I gave the Artist the news, he responded by singing, “Ahhhhh! Marital Bliss!” in his opera voice. 
Here’s the truck ready to haul the fleece to my Dad’s. 53 bags to be exact. What are all these fleeces on the ground? Oh, that’s MORE fleece. Fleece from years past that was shoved into a bathroom in the Boy’s Barn. I had forgotten it was even there. (We ceased being able to USE that bathroom years ago when the fleece took it over) I’ll have to go through all this and figure out what to do with all of it…Tomorrow…I’ll think about that tomorrow.
When I saw one of the best fleeces in this bunch had bugs in it (lots of them) – I really wanted to throw up. I was so disappointed. Atlantis’ fleece. Atlantis, who sheared 8 lbs. of NECK fiber! A harsh lesson in not throwing the fleece in an unused bathroom for four years. Okay, okay. I’ve learned my lesson. *sniff* the hard way.
But I will go through all this and sort it out. At least I made the Artist happy by taking 53 bags of fiber somewhere else to store. I even made an inventory so I know which fleeces are where. I kept at least 15 25 fleeces to work with in the near future.
Recently, I sent some of our best fleece to Chris at Vtknitboy (left photo by Chris). I’m thrilled to report that he loved it and compared it with cashmere. If you would like me to send you a complimentary fleece sample for you to try out, email me at katy@alpacafarmgirl.com with your name, address and color preference (if you have one). Or visit our Etsy shop for alpaca yarn and other products for sale.
Anyone else gonna share their true confessions of fiber hoarding?
April 28th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
silly girl! knitters and spinners hoard fiber too! i have 150,000 yards of purchases yarn, 6 fleeces to send out for processing and over 22 lbs of processed fiber to spin! yippee! join the club. ; )
vtknitboys last blog post..Meet Lyra!…a two month project
April 28th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
I was just thinking the other day that I should increase my stash size of roving so that I have stuff to spin when the urge for a quick-n-dirty spinning project strikes. But collecting dyed rovings is a lot different than hoarding that much fleece! The potential labor-hours in those pictures is astounding.
April 29th, 2009 at 6:55 am
My mom is a quilter and she has that saying hanging on the wall of her sewing room – “She who dies with the biggest stash wins!”
I don’t have my own alpacas yet but recently, when I took up knitting, I was able to raid my yarn stash saved up several years ago when I did a lot of weaving. I also have a huge bead stash from my many years of bead work and working in a bead store. My mom told me, never get rid of anything crafty because you never know when you’ll need it again.
Looking forward to your post on where to sell your fleece. We are hoping when we get our alpacas, to supplement our income with fleece. If I can turn loose of it, myself, that is-lol.
Joans last blog post..Life is Unraveling – Knitting Mistakes & Life in Texas
April 30th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
It is the “bugs” comment that really got my attention. Some can ruin fleece and be really difficult to get rid of. I do not know the remedies, but this was a recent topic on the Yahoo “spin list” Mary and I belong to.
Mac
Mac McFatters last blog post..Is Water Boarding Really Torture?
May 7th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Hello Hello, saw your post and it’s great that you have plans in the future to use your fleece, just make sure you don’t wait too too long as it can become severely damaged over time. One of the biggest culprits is moisture trapped in the plastic bags, especially if the fleece was damp at all going into the sealed bags. The trapped moisture will give way to a black mold that eats the fiber and makes it unusable. Another issue is moth damage, microscopic eggs are laid in an Alpacas Fleece while still on the animal and they sit dormant, waiting for the perfect time to hatch. When conditions get right, the moths will hatch and do a real number on the fleece, making it brittle and tough to spin. By making sure the bags can breathe and moisture isn’t trapped you should be Ok for 6 to 9 months. For moths, putting your fleece bags in a deep freezer for 24 to 48 hours will kill the eggs or using Moth Balls / Cedar / or Lavender will help repel the moths away from the fleece once they hatch. Hope that helps and best of luck to you in your future fiber endeavors! Every single alpaca farmer in the U.S. needs to be utilizing their fiber – after all it is the product these animals produce.
Shelleys last blog post..International Year of Natural Fibers 2009 – United Nations