NwRSA Conference 2009 (Part 2)

My Saturday class was "Spinning Fabulous Alpaca", with Kaye Collins. Kaye is from Fort Collins, CO and holds a Certificate of Excellence in spinning from the Handweavers Guild of America.

This was also a great class and really built on what I learned about woolen spinning in on Friday. Kaye supplied a wide selection of Huacaya and Suri alpaca of various microns and preparations. I found that there was a big difference in the feel, especially when spinning the Suri. I am now ruined for anything other than baby (22 micron or finer) alpaca...

At the end of the class, we got a chance to try some baby lama, camel and a camel/merino blend. Mmmmm, the camel was divine! I actually have some gorgeous black baby lama top from Crown Mountain Farms that I picked up in April at Shepherds Extravaganza, so getting to play with some during class was great.

In addition to the commercially prepared fiber, we also used combs and a drum carder during class to prep and blend our own. We talked about washing alpaca, how to keep the static / fly-away to a minimum while processing it and the best ways to set the twist. Lots of good info there, plus directions for creating a small PVC niddy noddy.

Kaye had us create sample cards during the class which should be a great resource and we also made bolo-style necklaces using longer sections of each fiber spun. As the proud owner of several bobbins of "mystery yarn" from various classes, I though that this was a pretty clever way to record, preserve and use the fiber spun during the class. I ended up with a bolo from my handspun and a wrist distaff from my neighbor's! She had taken Kaye's class on Friday too and didn't want a second bolo, so she made a pair of wrist distaffs instead.

Biggest takeaways from this class:

1. Spinning woolen, especially with a slippery fiber like alpaca, takes a lot more twist than I am used to. In general, I found that I had to jump up TWO ratios in order to get enough twist in my (thin-ish) singles. Even with a two ratio jump, I had to be careful and make sure that I was treadling fast enough to keep up with my hands. (which would really mess me up every time I switched back to worsted spinning!)

2. I really liked spinning alpaca woolen, especially with medium draw (woolen prep) and from the fold (worsted prep). Alpaca spins GREAT over the fold, probably because it is so slippery. I had no problems with it clinging to itself and trying to pull the lock back in line with the twist, which I have experienced with wool.

3. Alpaca prep is similar to wool, but there are slight differences and I came away with some good tips.

4. Ditto on the finishing, which I kind of got a hint of when I spun my alpaca/merino blend for Alpacapalooza earlier this year. I thought at the time that the "poofyness" I saw in my first few samples was a result of my spinning / TPI or caused by the particular fiber blend (50/50). Turns out that it may just have been because of the alpaca itself. I'll need to start earlier and sample more extensively next year to make sure that I don't run into this again.