Back to fiber at last

First, an update on the portfolio cover I made for my DD. It was made so that a one inch ring binder could fit in it with a slot inside the front cover for a sketch book.

The finished product




And a close-up




I was pleased with the way it came out and I think she loves it. It took every last oz of fiber that I had, but more is on the way.

While I wait for the merino to arrive, I'm experimenting with alpaca. Sooooooooft!

I have two pounds to play with and that's a lot of fiber since alpaca is much lighter than wool. It's from an alpaca farmer in upstate New York and is the first shearing of a baby (cria), so it's even softer than adult alpaca.

It's great for needlefelting ( poking repeatedly with a barbed needle to make sculptures or raised designs, for those who are scratching their heads), but the fiber is very short, making it difficult to use for wet felting (insisting with water and soap and much hand and foot agitation that fibers blend into one solid piece, for the scratchers again) and ditto for spinning.

It also has lots of straw from the little fellow's home turf that needs to be plucked out patiently. But I found it well worth the effort (thousands wouldn't).

I wet felted a small pouch, which took LOTS of rolling and throwing. It came out cute with curly edges.

And today, I tried to spin some of the fiber. I decided on the minimalist approach, just clean out vegetable matter, spin without carding and soak and wash several times. The results are a bit like spinning a poodle and a mink together! Very soft with short blobs now and then. Another bath and a stretch and a chance to dry hanging from one of the ubiquitous lilac trees and it was ready to knit.

I loved knitting with it even though I was knitting icord for the pouch. I usually hate to knit icord, but not this time.

This yarn will make a great start for my Etsy store. It's very dark brown, almost black,btw, with some lighter patches. I'll spin several spools in case someone wants to knit a larger project. No dye lots here!

Will take pictures tomorrow to post here and there (mmfiberstudio.etsy.com).