Jumping in

What's that? I can't hear you at the bottom of this rabbit hole!

Today I embarked on a little experiment in fiber preparation.  Now that I didn’t feel like I was going to spontaneously combust upon moving (98* was the high Wednesday…oi), it was time to play with some alpaca.  You saw the suri alpaca I bought a post or two ago.  Since there was only 6.5 ounces, I decided to blend it with some mocha merino from the stash.   Being scientifically inclined, I decided to do a simple comparison experiment: blending the two fibers by combing  first, then by carding and finally spinning each preparation into a two-ply yarn, from which a swatch will be knit.  I am curious to see how much difference there will be in the end product.

To begin, I took my bag of alpaca and began separating it into individual locks….like so:

Next step:  blend!  I wasn’t very scientific on the merino-to-alpaca ratio, but it probably worked out in the end to an 80-20 merino-alpaca blend.  My DIY combs worked pretty well.  I only scraped my fingers one time so I’m counting it a success.

Combed fiber

Carded fiber

I started spinning with the combed fiber first.  So soft!  So fluffy! And its the same color as Elisabeth’s hair.

Elisabeths hair!

The blending of the lighter alpaca with the darker merino ended up with a beautiful brown shade with blonde “highlights”.

Single on the spindle (combed)

Using the handy ply technique from Knitty, I created a two-ply yarn.  Final stats on the yarn: 0.2 ounces of 2 ply 16 wpi ~ 20 yards.  (**The picture below in no way does justice to the yarn…)

Finished combed yarn

Tomorrow, I’ll spin up the carded preparation and see how it differs (if I can tell anyway!).

I finally did finish my Spunky Eclectic Shetland in the club colorway, Selfish.

2-ply fractal spun; ~3.1 ounces, 280 yards

My camera will be back from China on Saturday (along with Rich….woohoo!)  so I will get some better (read: less blurry/grainy) pictures next week.